#and the progression of that banter was so funny like how are we suddenly talking about me- | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

callsignspark · 2 years ago

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Jordan: queen of making me blush with kind words 💕 the pining is unreal!! I'm two seconds away from smooshing them together like two Barbie dolls and making them kiss (jk their first kiss isn't for a while. or is it? 👀)

i love them interrogating annabeth!! and her rationale for why bradley liked mary’s bathing suit “he kept staring at her….he liked her butt” and then TWIRL BOBBY!! i love how much she loves bob, it’s so cute! poor jake tho - I love little kids, providing all the details except for the one thing you're actually looking for. though her outing Bradley's staring at her ass, good work Annie. (poor Jake indeed. he does end up almost puking after spinning. has to lay down on the floor and take deep breaths. Annie? completely fine and trying to get another adult to spin her.)

this is such a good line - Callie and Nat trying to get Annie to tell them things

this sounds so cool! i know it was mentioned previously but i also think it’s really cool she has a masters degree! she’s so smart and capable in her work life, now she’s just gotta get as good of a handle on her personal life 🥺 - she's so incredible when it comes to professional stuff! she's so smart! you're definitely right about the personal life stuff! things will start to get better in part six. (it's going to messy but it'll be progress.)

i agree with mary, but also think it’s funny that he’s so blunt. it’s like he’s trying to get their easy banter and relationship back, but just jumps the gun a littleeeee too much - bradley: quick, brain! what can I say that won't make things awkward? "you think they're fucking?" that did not help!! (he's been trying to respect the fact that she clearly wants space, but he's also tired of her avoiding him. he misses his friend.)

awwww honey! i do get how based on this behavior why bradley says they should forget what happened? like he’s trying and it just breaks my heart for both of them? - it makes sense! he's having a normal, reasonable reaction! the problem here is that their friends (bless their hearts) are trying to force things instead of letting them happen at their own pace. (the blame here is like 40% Mary, 30% Bradley, 30% Dagger Squad)

i always liked that she called him bradley - like we talked about earlier, she calls all of them by their real names most of the time. even at work she’ll usually go with Rank Last Name. there’s very few people that she consistently uses their call sign, and it’s only because those people prefer their call signs. she's spent a lot of time around naval aviators (from retired pilots, to newbies, to active duty with several tours under their belt) and she witnessed firsthand in Missouri and Florida how this job can consume people and suddenly they only feel like they can be their call sign and now themselves. so she purposefully calls everyone that she’s close it’s by their real name(s). including Bradley. but she also calls him that because she really likes his name.

oh sweet girl! i get it being so scary, this totally breaks my heart. like he’s just so pretty and kind and smart and he wants me?? - I cried writing this entire part and while editing. absolutely gonna kick the ass of every man that's been mean to her.

‘we can have just one night or we can have one whole life’ i also wonder if they weren’t interrupted and did have sex would mary have tried to brush it off and keep it as a one time thing in order to save her feelings? despite what’s occasionally popular in fics, i don’t really see bradley as a big one night stand guy and don’t really see him letting that happen? - (first of all, I love that song <3) and I agree that he's not a one night stand kind of guy. at least not any more, when he was younger he would occasionally hook up but he definitely wasn't a different woman every night kinda guy. as for the third point, if they weren't interrupted and did have sex, what would have happened? that's a create question! and I'm actually planning to write a special one-shot "different ending" where we see what would happen in that scenario!

the line ‘i have never been able to forget my body’ reminds me of this ee cummings poem ‘i like my body when it is with your body’ and then the line at the end ‘and possibly i like the thrill of under me you so quite new’ this entire part is so beautiful but also sad - I just read that poem and I love it so much, especially the last line. it's just so beautifully them. this part was hard to write, emotionally. it's very raw. but I'm very proud of how the final draft came out. (ps. Jordan knows this but if anyone else actually reads this, I wrote the rough draft of this section at 4AM one night and cried the entire time.)

i’ve told you how much i love this line before, but like just imagining how cozy she’ll be in it and like as weird as it is to say, bradley would be a little proud that she’s wearing his sweatshirt? and like despite what they’re going through she knows he’d lend her one? and then that means she has to give it back to him? and it smells like her ☺️ oh i’m so excited for his pov in chapter 6! - Bradley loves her in his clothes!! (even this time, when things are rough between them - it makes his heart race a little bit to see his callsign on her! that's his girl!) and she knows that Bradley is a good man and would help her out if he could, no matter if they're fighting or not. she does have to give it back to him! (she does in part six! where we see things from his perspective! y'all it's about to get messy!)

i totally feel for both them and see both sides because her behavior wasn’t exactly the best re avoiding him but also she was really embarrassed and so shocked, but like she didn’t give him any indication that she was like into it in the following weeks?? my heart hurts - my heart hurts too, they're both not handling this the best way and could be in such a better spot if they had just talked to each other. but alas, both of them are not the best about letting themselves open up to other. (don't worry they get better about it.)

this reminds me of that scene in little women when laurie unties amy’s apron in her little art studio? you perfectly described it, like it’s mixed with sadness and longing - how dare you tell me this reminds you of one of my favorite sad scenes in one of my favorite movies. (affectionate) (thank you so much for that comparison)

oh this is gonna be TROUBLE (in the best possible way) like the two of them? at a club on valentine’s day?? mary in a cute dress?? bradley pinning? mary pinning? - I've said it before and I'll say it again, but chapter six is just one word: messy

Mar[r]y Me - part five

pairing: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x Mariella “M&M” Vertucci (fem!OC)

summary: A love story told through friendship, laughter, and food.

series warnings: 18+ minors DNI, discussion of insecurities, difficult family relationships, discussions of food and alcohol use, discussions of body image, conversations on what it’s like to be a fat woman trying to date in today’s society, warnings to be added as needed

word count: 5.3k

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note: happy Friday! we're really getting into the meat of the story in this one! thank you for all the love on this series! can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on this one!

part five - buffalo chicken dip

“What do you mean you’re not coming?!”

Mary yanks the phone away from her ear; Kristina’s voice is much shriller than she expected it to be when declining the invite.

“Kris, I don’t care about football. I don’t even know who’s playing! Why would I go to a Super Bowl party?”

“Uhh, to drink wine, watch the funny commercials and eat buffalo chicken dip? Why else?”

“That’s not a good enough rea- hang on, I’m putting you on speaker so I can keep folding laundry.” She puts her phone on the end table. “That’s not a good enough reason to come. Who's making the buffalo chicken dip anyway?”

“You! Like you did for Friendsgiving!”

“Kris…” She sighs. “I really don’t want to come. I’m sorry; it’s nothing against you guys. I’ve just been in a weird mood lately, and I won’t be much fun. I don’t want to ruin it for everyone.”

“Are either of you ever going to tell anyone what happened that night?”

Mary freezes, a half-folded towel tucked under her chin. “Nothing happened! I don’t know how many times that has to be said before someone finally believes me!”

Nothing happened, my ass. Kristina rolls her eyes, remembering the desperate measures the Dagger Squad had taken to try and figure out what happened between Mary and Bradley. The previous Friday, a group had even gone as far as interrogating Annabeth. At the same time, Harvard, Fritz, and Omaha had invited Bradley to join a “boys' night out.” It was a failed attempt to get information out of him, figuring he would be the easier of the two to break.

“Come on, Annie. Think really hard! What happened the day you, Aunt Mary, and Rooster went to the beach?” Danielle questions from the couch.

“We played in the sand and the water! Aunt Mary didn’t like when I got her wet, but she didn’t get mad. And Rooster liked her swimsuit. Twirl, Bobby!”

Bob spins around, looking a bit green in the gills after their twenty-fifth consecutive rotation. “I gotta tap out, or I’m going to throw up.” He hands Annie off to Jake.

Mickey pushes a water bottle into his hands, giving him a pep talk while Reuben rubs his shoulders. The three of them looking like a poor parody of a boxing team between rounds.

“How do you know he liked her swimsuit?” Coyote asks, feeling a bit ridiculous that they’re relying on the memory of an almost five-year-old to find out what happened over three weeks prior. But it was their last resort. The two adults involved had given them nothing.

“Spin, Jake!”

“Answer our questions first. Then we can spin as much as you want.”

Annabeth’s eyes go wide. “As much as I want?”

“Jake, you may not want to-”

“As much as you want.” He nods solemnly. They’re going to get this information, one way or another, even if it means that someone pukes. He can’t stand another week of being front row to the droopy Rooster and sad M&M avoiding each other show. “How do you know Rooster liked Mary’s swimsuit?”

“He kept staring at her.” She giggles before adding, “He liked her butt.”

It sends titters through the ten adults assembled, silence falling over the group at Jake’s glare. 'What else happened?”

“We went to the grocery store, and Rooster says I get his sunglasses when I’m bigger! We had beach meal and ice cream sundaes and watched Cars!”

“What else did you guys do?” Callie questions, her and Natasha sending encouraging smiles from where they’re crammed together in an armchair. As if showing more teeth will release the details they’re looking for.

“Then I brushed my teeth and went to sleep.”

A disappointed hush falls over the room. “That’s it? Nothing else?” Logan’s voice edges on desperate, the realization that they’re not going to learn anything helpful sinking in.

“I had a bad dream! The dinosaurs were there. They were scary, but Aunt Mary let me watch Frozen on the couch with her and Rooster, and then I wasn’t scared anymore!”

“Dinosaurs? What dinosaurs, Annie?” Danielle questions, confused as to what she could be talking about.

“The dinosaurs from the movie! Jurassic Park! I watched it with Daddy!”

“What is she talking about, Reuben?”

Danielle’s voice is deathly calm, causing the butts of every adult to clench in fear. The little girl pokes at her pseudo-uncle, not realizing the situation she’s created. “Spin, Jake! Spin!”

“Yeah, kid, we’re spinning, we’re spinning. Gonna spin so much while mommy and daddy have a chat in the kitchen.”

“You let her watch that?! Reuben! That used to give you nightmares if we watched it too late at night!”

A doubtful hum comes over the phone. “Okay, dropping the subject. How about this? You make the buffalo chicken dip, drop it off, then when you’re here, you can pick up your dress - I got a chance to fix the zipper.”

Mary raises an eyebrow at her phone. “You really want dip as payment for fixing my dress?”

“I want dip because I’m extremely pregnant, craving buffalo chicken dip, and you make the best I’ve ever had. The dress repair is free of charge because it took me two seconds.”

“I was going to stop by next week to pick-”

“Mary, I have three kids, and I’m eight months pregnant. This thing could blow at any time, and I don’t want you to have to wait four years to get your dress back. Which is definitely what will happen if you don’t pick it up before I give birth.” The two of them laugh at her exaggeration.

“Okay, okay. I’ll be by on Sunday with buffalo chicken dip to pick up my dress. What time should I come by so I don’t interrupt the party?”

“We officially said to come around three, but people will probably start dropping in sooner, so any time after two would be good. And you’re coming to the party.”

“I will be grabbing my dress, and then I will be leaving, Kristina.”

“Whatever you say, Mary.”

Mary weaves through the partygoers, smiling tensely at everyone who greets her.

“I thought you said this was starting - be careful, that’s hot - in an hour! Why is everyone already here?” She hisses in Kristina’s ear after adding her dish to the buffet line.

“It is! I also said people were probably going to come by early!” She pops a chip full of buffalo chicken dip into her mouth and moans. “Oh my god, that is so good!”

“I thought you meant like a few of the guys, not the entire guest list! I told everyone I wasn’t coming! How am I-” Mary gets cut off by Kristina shoving a ranch-covered baby carrot in her mouth.

“Calm down. Hang out for a little while, eat some food, and once the game gets going, you can sneak away and avoid whatever is happening between you and Bradley that you both insist isn’t happening.”

Mary splutters, trying to come up with a response, but gets interrupted before she can defend herself.

“Mary! I want you to meet someone!” Natasha joins them, pulling a brunette woman behind her. “This is my best friend, Flora Phillips! Flora, this is Mariella Vertucci. She’s the one I was telling you about!”

“Oh! You’re the one who made that coffee cake? Nat brought me a slice; it was amazing!” The two women shake hands. “It’s so nice to meet you!”

“You too! Nat said you run that flower shop down on Madison Ave?”

“She doesn’t just run it. She owns it. She’s Flora of Flora’s Florals!”

“Oh wow, that’s awesome!”

Phoenix and Kris move to greet Mav and Penny, who pop in to say hello before continuing to Warlock’s watch party. The other two women continue getting to know each other.

“So you’re in charge of all jet maintenance and repairs?”

“Yup, it’s my job to know everything that changes or gets fixed on the planes. It’s a lot of paperwork, meetings and debriefs, after-action reports, and training. Plus, I still cram hands-on time into my afternoons.”

“You do all that, and you’re still physically working on the planes yourself?”

“It helps keep me and my team on top of things. It’s much easier to sign off on a new mechanic’s report if I can see how they work and problem-solve through a roadblock in real-time.” Mary shrugs. “And I enjoy it; it makes the endless conference calls worth it.”

“I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with conference calls - hi Flora - it would be such a downer.” Jake wraps an arm around Flora’s shoulders, smiling down at her.

“Just wait until you make captain, Jacob, and all the fun responsibilities that come with that rank change.”

“Well, that’ll probably be happening soon enough, right, Bradshaw? It’s been a few years since I made lieutenant commander.” At his beckoning, Bradley comes over, standing next to Mary but refusing to make eye contact.

“You disobeyed orders on that carrier, got reamed into next year, and somehow got lieutenant commander before everyone else. I doubt you can pull the same thing for captain, Hangman.”

Jake turns to Mary, ignoring Bradley’s snark. “Where’s your better half tonight?”

“Stephen has a cold, so the Fitch family is staying home. And stop calling Danielle my better half! She’s married to my other best friend, and people keep getting the idea that we’re a throuple.”

“Are you not?”

“We are most definitely not. We’re platonic life partners.”

“See, that sounds like a relationship to me.”

“That’s because Javy does 95% of the emotional lifting in your friendship, Jake.” A muffled laugh interrupts their bickering. “Sorry about him, Flora. He gets less annoying the more you get to know him.”

“Oh, I know. Ever since Nat introduced us, Jake stops by the shop every few weeks for a plant checkup or to send some flowers to his mom, so I think we can officially be considered buddies.”

“Buddies? That is so hurtful, Flora! Would I make someone who is just a buddy my infamous TUA punch? Excuse us, Mary.” He directs her towards the makeshift bar on the dining room table.

“You know infamous is the bad one, right?” Flora questions as they go, making Mary laugh.

“You think they’re fucking?” The question startles her; she hadn’t forgotten Bradley was next to her, but she didn’t expect his first non-professional words in a month to be so blunt.

“I don’t know; they get along well, though. Lots of chemistry.” She moves toward the living room, ignoring the call of her name and joining a conversation with Brigham and Aaron, Fritz’s husband.

The next hour passes in a similar fashion. She’ll settle into a conversation, enjoying the company of her friends and their loved ones that have joined the party, when one of them brings Bradley into their chat. The next few minutes are uncomfortable, and Mary makes an excuse to leave the group. It happens over and over again until she finally makes her escape to the kitchen, where she pretends to be engrossed in getting food. Everyone leaves her alone, and it’s a nice moment of peace.

Until it’s not.

She groans internally when, out of the corner of her eye, she sees Bradley enter and make his way over.

“Did you make the buffalo chicken dip again? It’s delicious, even better than the one at Thanksgiving.”

“I did; thank you, Rooster.”

The entire room winces; she never calls him Rooster outside of work - barely even calls him Rooster at work - and everyone knows it. He tries to make more small talk, anything to get her to make eye contact with him again when someone bumps into his back. He’s jostled, and it loosens the solo cup in his hand, pouring red punch all down the front of her pale yellow sweater, seemingly in slow motion.

The kitchen is frozen, everyone staring at the duo in shock until yelling from the living room breaks the silence.

Bradley grabs a handful of paper towels and is trying to clean up her sweater when she grabs his wrist to stop him. He turns as red as the punch staining her top once he realizes exactly where his hands had been rubbing.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, Mary, I-”

He’s cut off as Kristina takes charge of the situation, the elementary school teacher and mom of three having a spidey sense for when tears are looming on the horizon. “Alright, no big deal, folks. Mary, head upstairs, I’ll be right behind you, and we’ll get some stain remover on that. Bradley, Logan, please take care of the floor - I do not want ants in my house. Anyone who I did not just mention, if you’re done getting refreshments, please file into the living room so we have an easier time cleaning up.”

Everyone springs into action at her instructions, and she grabs Flora on her way, “Mind coming with me? I think I’m going to need a Switzerland for this one.”

The two women climb the stairs to find Mary standing at the sink in her sports bra, rinsing her shirt and taking deep breaths, trying to blink back tears. Flora nudges her to the side, grabbing the sweater and working stain remover into the fabric.

“So, do you want to talk about what just happened?”

“Nothing happened.” Mary insists.

“Really? That’s why Rooster has been walking around looking like a kicked puppy for the past four weeks?”

“He has not-”

“Yes!” Kris interrupts. “He has! Something happened the day that we went to the beach, and no one knows what’s going on. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but everyone is worried.”

Mary sniffles and starts to explain, tired of holding everything inside from that night. The other women stare in shock when she finishes.

Kris blinks at her. “I don’t understand; if all that happened, why have you been avoiding him for the past month?”

“Because it’s scary!”

“What’s scary?” Flora gently questions.

The tears in Mary’s eyes finally slide down her face, and her lip trembles as she takes a shaky breath. “It’s hard being fat. Men don’t ever want me for me. It’s just sex they’re after. No one ever wants to love me. They just want to fuck me. So it’s hard to believe that Bradley would actually want me.”

Flora grabs her hand when the tears start coming faster.

“He’s a gorgeous man who can have any woman he wants. But when I think about what it felt like to be on his lap, I know he wanted me. It’s not a question of did he or not - he did. Which is something I’ve never had before. When I realized how hard he was and he told me that I was the reason - that he’d been like that for two hours and wasn’t even going to say anything if I hadn’t brushed him - that’s the first time I can ever remember not worrying about my body. I didn’t think about what my stomach looked like or if my shirt was tucked into a fat roll. I didn’t worry about how my boobs sag, and my nipples point toward the ground. I didn’t even care about how much I weigh! I just climbed into his lap, and he welcomed me.”

She’s crying through her words, interrupting herself every so often with a hiccup.

“That look in his eyes… no one has ever looked at me like that before. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt desired. Wanted. And I wanted him. I want him so badly. If Annie hadn’t had that nightmare and interrupted us, I would have had sex with him right there on my couch. And I would have enjoyed it. I know it would have been good. And instead-“

She cuts herself off and presses a hand over her mouth, muffling a sob that shakes her shoulders. Kristina rubs her back, both women trying to comfort her.

“God, I fucking hate crying over this; it’s my own fault!” She angrily swipes at her tears. “Because after I put Annie back to bed, instead of talking to him or picking up where we left off, I sent him home! And I immediately regretted it, and I wanted to call him and tell him to come back, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it! Because I’m so scared of how he makes me feel! I have never been able to forget my body and just enjoy a moment. I am constantly aware of my body. What it’s doing, what it looks like, making sure my clothes sit just right so I don’t look too big. It’s fucking exhausting. I've never felt so comfortable with someone that I completely forgot to care about what I looked like because I knew they didn’t care. That they wanted me. I don’t know how to handle it!”

She tries to catch her breath, a month’s worth of built-up emotions pouring out at once, making her hyperventilate. Flora sits her down and rubs her back until her breathing evens out.

Kristina silently hands over a damp washcloth, Mary giving her a wobbly smile as she runs it over her face and rests it on the back of her neck, the cool sensation making it easier to ground herself.

“So, I know nothing about this situation except what you told us.” Flora breaks the quiet. “But from what you said and what I saw today, it seems like he has feelings for you. You should go for it.”

“I- really?”

“Mary, you’re a very nice person, but I don’t know you well enough to hold back or lie to you. He cares about you. As a friend? For sure, that’s obvious, you know that. But something in his face told me it’s more than that for him. You should talk to him.”

“If nothing else, I should apologize for kicking him out and ignoring him without any explanation, huh?”

“That would be a good start!” Kris nods encouragingly. “And then the next step is explaining how you love him and want to have his babies.”

Mary blinks up at her friend. “I think I’ll just go with the apology and see how things progress from there.”

“Fine, be boring! Seriously though, it would be good to talk to him. You’ve missed each other. Also, you should try the dress while you’re here and make sure the zipper is good.”

“I need you guys not to tell anyone what happened. I haven’t told anyone, and I don’t think Bradley has either.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t told Dani or Reuben.”

“They have a four-year-old and a newborn. I can’t tell them right now because they’ll worry too much - and they’re already not getting enough sleep as it is. Not to mention there’s a good chance Dani would try to kick Bradley’s ass.”

Flora injects. “But you started it? Why is he hypothetically getting beat up?”

“Because those two are extremely overprotective, and their actual children aren’t old enough to date yet, so all that energy gets focused on me. Not to mention how everyone would try to help and give advice. And while I appreciate that everyone cares so much, having that many people involved would just make it worse and more confusing. So at least until I talk to Bradley, please don’t say anything to anyone.”

“Too many cooks in the kitchen kinda deal, I get it. Not a peep from me.” When Kristina agrees, relief rushes through her body.

“Thank you, guys. Now where’s the dress?”

“Bedroom, through that door.” Kris directs her through the connecting door. “Hey Flora, can you ask the boys if one of them has a shirt Mary can wear home? There is no salvaging that sweater; sorry, babe, the red Hawaiian punch got to it.”

“Please just ask Bradley. He’s the only one who would have a shirt that would fit me. And thank you for everything, Flora. I owe you.”

“I’ll let you know when you can return the favor.” Flora winks at her, heading downstairs to find her something to wear.

“Will you stop wiggling!” Kris scolds, struggling to get the zipper all the way up with the way Mary keeps moving. “There! Now take your socks off; it’s ruining the image.”

“Oh, like how my bra was “ruining” the image?” Mary mocks, bending over to pull her socks off.

“You had a yellow sports bra poking out the sides of your sexy, little black dress. Yes, it was ruining the picture.” She unclips Mary’s hair, fluffing it out before spinning her around. “Damn, if I wasn’t happily married and you were into women, I would be all over you.”

Mary doesn’t even blush like she usually does when one of the girls flirts with her. She’s transfixed by her reflection. She’s never looked so good. Even with the puffy eyes and red nose, she looks good. Twisting side to side, she can’t believe this is the same dress she bought last month.

“What did you do?”

“I fixed the zipper! And adjusted the side seams and fixed the hem. I know clothing isn’t made by hand nowadays, but god, this was shitty even by mass production standards.” Kris scoffs and rolls her eyes.

“Thank you! You’re magic, oh my god, Kris!” She’s in awe. She never thought she could feel this confident in a skin-tight dress. “What do I owe you?”

“Nothing, it was fun, and honestly, after I got in there, it would have driven me insane to know I was sending you with such a poorly constructed piece. I was happy to do it. Though, if you want to occasionally bring goodies over when the squad is deployed, I would not complain.”

“Done. Just send a text whenever you need a break from cooking, and I’ll stop by with stuff to get you through a few days. We were already planning to rally the troops to bring you and Danielle stuff when the boys are gone, so we’ll have to start a list of stuff the kids like to make it easier.”

“Deal.” Angry screams interrupt them. “Speaking of my children. I have to take care of that before it turns into crying.”

Mary waves her away. “Go, go. Flora can unzip me when she comes back.”

When the door shuts, she goes back to admiring herself in the mirror. She can’t even bring herself to feel silly for the way she twirls, smiling so big her cheeks hurt. This is the best I’ve looked in years…

Her internal monologue is interrupted by a knock.

“Come in!” She strikes a pose. “What do you think?”

“You look beautiful.”

“Bradley!” She turns in surprise, her heart thrumming. “I’m sorry!”

“What?” He freezes just inside the door, a sweatshirt clutched in his fist.

“I’m trying to apologize. I’ve been avoiding you since we went to the beach. That night… I just didn’t know how to handle it. I know I started it, but I wanted to explain how-”

“I think we should forget what happened.” He interrupts.

Her heart stops. “What?”

“I don’t regret what we did, but you clearly do-”

“I don’t regret it!” She protests. “I started it because I wanted it, Bradley. I wanted you.”

“Mary, you kicked me out, and the only reason you’ve talked to me in the last month is if it was necessary at work.” Bradley says gently. “I don’t want to lose you as a friend, and I don’t want you to resent me, so I think it’s best to act like it didn’t happen.”

“But I don’t want-”

“It’s the best thing to do, Mary.”

“You’re not going to let me explain? You just want to forget about it without even talking about it?”

The tension is high, the two of them staring into each other’s eyes.

“Here’s a sweatshirt to borrow; I’m sorry for spilling on you.” He tosses it onto the bed and turns to leave.

“Bradley…” Her voice is thick, tears starting to build again, even as he stops to look at her. “I- I-”

I can’t believe you won’t let me explain.

I can’t believe you don’t want to talk about this.

I can’t believe I put myself out there just to get rejected again.

His eyes tell her that she won’t be able to change his mind; he’s determined and stubborn. Qualities she usually admires about him. She sighs in defeat, knowing she can’t win.

“Could you unzip me? I can’t take this dress off by myself.”

He crosses the room, and she turns around, goosebumps erupting when he moves her hair to the side. He undoes the clasp and grabs the zipper, pulling it slowly down her back. His fingers brush her skin, sending shivers up and down her spine.

They make eye contact in the mirror. His hands pause at the middle of her back. Hers pressing the dress against her chest so it doesn’t slip. Both of them flushed from the proximity, from sadness; it’s not clear what emotion is winning out.

“Is that far enough?” He mummers in her ear.

She nods, “Thank you.”

He lingers for a minute, not moving. “You are so beautiful, Mary.”

He’s gone before she can even process the compliment, the door punctuating his departure. Mary tilts her head to the ceiling, willing herself not to cry again.

It doesn’t work.

The sweatshirt is his version of the one she wore that night. His call sign stitched on the sleeve in the same place as hers. The navy blue fabric absorbs a tear as she runs her fingers over the white letters.

Rooster.

She slowly redresses, hesitating slightly before pulling her borrowed shirt on. It fits, just like she knew it would. It’s slightly loose on Rooster when he wears it, so she knew it wouldn’t be too tight on her. She still has to roll the sleeves a few times, sniffing back tears as his cologne reminds her what it’s like to be near him. What it was like to be so close to him that night.

There’s a quick knock, and Phoenix’s head pops through the door, eyes closed. “Are you decent? Can we come in?”

“Just one second!” Mary wipes her face, making sure it doesn’t look like she was crying. “Okay, come on in.”

“Wow…” Nat wiggles her eyebrows, flopping on the bed. “Look at you, wearing Rooster’s flight school sweatshirt! It’s like the adult equivalent of giving you his letterman jacket.”

“That’s ridiculous! I have my own flight school shirt with my own call sign. I don’t need a man to give me his.”

“How do you have one?” Natasha sits up, almost knocking heads with Flora.

“When I was the engineering liaison in Pensacola, I got to know the brass pretty well. One of the admirals kinda took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. Really helped me understand how the Navy works. And, of course, I was so brilliant that I quickly became his favorite civilian. So when I left, he got me a sweatshirt.” She dramatically flips her hair over her shoulder. “Mostly because I had been subtly complaining for like three years that I wanted one, and it wasn’t fair that all the gross boys got one, but I didn’t.”

“You’re not a pilot, Mary.”

“That’s exactly what he said! So unfair.” She rolls her eyes and tuts.

It’s all an act. Can’t you tell it’s an act?

The jokes feel flat coming out of her mouth; the words taste bitter. But she can’t give Natasha any trace of sadness. She knows Bradley was just in here; she’ll smell the blood in the water. And she’s not ready to give so much of herself away to another innocent bystander today. She didn’t even mean to earlier, even if they were nice about it.

“That’s gotta be over soon, right? How long can this game go?” Kris asks as cheering from the living room mingles with their laughter.

“Wait! Oh my god, did I tell you? For Valentine’s Day, Logan hired a babysitter and said we’re going to get massages and then eat Taco Bell alone in our mini-van. At eight months pregnant, it’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You gonna get frisky in the backseat?”

“We’re gonna try, but we might just nap instead, which sounds just as good. What about you, Flora? Any plans?”

“No plans. Not only am I extremely single, but Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for me at the shop. It’s tied for first with Mother’s Day. And it being a Sunday this year just adds even more difficulty because half my vendors won’t ship on Saturdays, so it’s been a logistical nightmare trying to get all the flowers ordered.”

“How many orders do you have this year?”

“God, even more than last year, Nat!” Flora flops back. “Which is great - I’m so happy business is growing - but it’s so stressful. I hired a second driver! Thankfully Calliope’s brother was looking for some extra cash because we’re bordering on 350 orders right now. And I’m still accepting orders until close on Friday.”

Natasha pets her best friend’s head. “Let me know if you need help. I’ll happily come by on Saturday and process roses for you.”

“You have plans Saturday.”

“Not until Saturday night, and I would skip it if you needed help.”

“What are you doing on Saturday?” Kris asks, relaxing in the rocking chair on the other side of the room.

“Oh! I didn’t tell you guys yet!” Phoenix pops up, looking excited. “Streets, that club over on Elm, is having a special thing for Valentine’s Day! It’s apparently a speed dating thing, but I think everyone is just going to drink and dance. All the single people in the squad and some of the control room people are going. Mary, you’re coming - I won’t take no for an answer - and you should invite your mechanics!”

“Okay! That sounds fun! What’re we wearing?”

“Really?! I don’t have to convince you? All the boys took forever to say yes! I don’t know what I’m wearing yet, but you, me, and Callie should get dinner tomorrow and figure it out!”

“Zero convincing needed.” Mary’s smile is strained, not fully reaching her eyes. All three women notice but don’t say anything. “I’m single with zero prospects on the horizon. Maybe I’ll find a boyfriend! Or at least a date.”

Kris freezes, eyes snapping to Flora, who is equally confused. Both of them wondering what changed in the few minutes they were gone.

“What time is it? I should get going. I still have to go to the grocery store.”

The four women make their way downstairs, Mary yelling a quick goodbye as she pulls her sneakers on.

“You can’t leave, M&M! The game isn’t over yet!” Jake complains from his post against the living room doorframe.

“Jake, sweetie, I don’t know how to explain to you how little I care about football. Also, when I do care about football - which is approximately once a year, and unfortunately, you’ve missed this season’s opportunity - it’s to cheer for the Bills.”

“You like the Bills?” Omaha’s voice edges on disgusted. “You’re just like Payback.”

“I’m from New York, went to school in Buffalo, and my family doesn’t do football. All that plus my thousand-year friendship with Reuben equals reluctant Bills fan by association.”

“But they-”

“Suck? Yes, I know. I also don’t care.” She opens the front door, waving sarcastically. “Okay, bye!”

Her eyes meet Bradley’s before the front door closes, and her chest instantly tightens. The happiness that had built up from spending time with the girls dissipating in a second.

I can get over him. I can do it… I have to.

if you would like to be added (or removed) from the tag list please send an ask!

fic tag | credit for dividers here

#thank you for all your kinds words <3 #comment reblog

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thefanficmonster · 4 years ago

Text

An Impostor In Love

Sequel to ‘Love For The Faceless’ (’Body Reveal’)

Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)

Warnings: Swearing (maybe)

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Rae can’t stay mad at her best friends forever. Them being absolutely adorable doesn’t help her ‘pissed off’ act either. Y/N’s outing Corpse like she’s a human lie detector. Corpse is gushing about her every second word that comes out of his mouth. And the rest of the lobby are getting one hell of a kick out of the Among Us romantic comedy - An Impostor In Love

Requested but, once again, not in a typical way. I honestly wasn’t expecting all the positive feedback I got for Love For The Faceless (Body Reveal). I was star-struck! You guys are so amazing I have no words to describe just how much I love you all! Thank you for everything! This story is for all of you 🥰🥰🥰

“Mr. and Mrs. ‘Totally not dating’ have entered the call!“ Sean announces when I hop into the Discord call to play Among Us with the usual gang. I hear Corpse’s laugh from down the hall, bringing a smile to my face.

We’ve gotten used to playing in this arrangement, a few rooms away from each other, ever since we moved in together - Corpse is in his recording room and I am in our shared bedroom. When one dies, they go in the other’s room to troll them. I’m usually the one dead, but that’s besides the point.

“Hi everyone!“ I say in my typical cheery tone before kicking it done a few notches, making it an octave deeper just to say: “Hi Rae.”

The whole lobby laughs, they all know what I’m trying to do here. Everyone’s aware this is the first time Rae is in the same call and lobby as Corpse and I after you-know-which incident. Sure, I’ve been poking sticks at her, waving a white flag and admitting I was wrong several times by now. Who knew my sweetheart best friend could act so cold? I know it’s a front. I know she’s fighting to stay mad. There’s a ton of pressure on her to finally forgive us, but she’s been holding up better than I would be if I were in her situation.

I honestly felt, and still feel, slightly guilty. I know best friends are supposed to tell each other everything. They are supposed to be the first ones to know whatever’s going on in each other’s lives. And I know I broke one of the main rules of friendships, but the decision wasn’t only mine to make. I’m sure she understands where I’m coming from, she’s just giving me and Corpse a hard time.

“Hello, Y/N.” She replies, her tone strictly formal.

“Progress, people! Progress!“ I say joyously, the smile turning into a grin

“Don’t worry, babe. We’ll get her eventually.“ Corpse reassures me as he’s done for the past week or two. He knew I wasn’t as unbothered by Rae’s anger towards me as I tried to appear - a pro and simultaneously a con of living with someone: they pick up on everything about you. You become as familiar to them as the back of their hand.

“I know, I know.“ I giggle, “She’ll cave.“

“Yeah, good luck with that.“ Rae has dropped the formal tone, now sounding like a stubborn child which is something I’m way more familiar with. I’ve dealt with her tantrums and childish outbursts - I don’t know which number it is, but it’s somewhere in the rule book of friendships - and I at least the approximate meaning behind it.

Ken puts an end to our friendly, stick-poking, sorta one-sided banter, ushering us to start the game. We all oblige, muting our mics and getting our heads in the game as though we’re about to enter an actual warzone with upmost stealth.

To my dismay, the screen flashes ‘Crewmate’. I head out of cafeteria to do my task in Weapons, staying weary of anyone within my proximity. Once I’m done, I head on down to Shields and complete my task there as well. I cringe when I’m done, knowing my last three tasks are in Electrical. Like, the fuck kind of luck do I have?

I make my way through the halls, running into Sykkuno and we circle around each other a few times to show we’re safe before we each continue our own way. I enter Electrical and.....oh Felix is dead. And oh lookie who’s right there...

I report the body before the impostor can and we all unmute our mics.

“Found him in Electrical.“ I say nonchalantly, “Didn’t see anyone in there though.“

“Anyone sus?“ Sean asks

We say our ‘no’s and ‘I don’t know’s and skip the vote. I’m smirking to myself as I head back down to Electrical. Walking in, I see the same person as before - Rae. I stop dead in my tracks and we just stare at each other for a few seconds before she comes towards me, circling me twice, bumping visors with me and venting out of the room.

“You’re welcome.“ I mumble, smiling widely.

I finish my tasks and leave Electrical just as Corpse enters our bedroom, giving me this tired-parent look like he’s half disappointed and half amused. “You just threw the game, didn’t you? Don’t lie.” He raises his eyebrows, fully adopting his parent role.

I giggle, shaking my head, sending him the briefest of glances before my eyes fixate on the screen in utter shock - Sean just killed me. Oh, for fuck’s sake...

“I was gonna come clean eventually, but I guess they won’t hear it from me now.“ I shrug, lifting my laptop and setting it aside so Corpse can join me on the bed. I snuggle up to him immediately, drawn to him as though he’s a human magnet.

“Who was it?“ He asks me, running his hands through my hair in a soothing manner.

I frown, pulling away from his chest to look him in the eyes, “Wait, how did you know I threw the game if you don’t know who I threw it for?”

He smirks, shrugging, “I didn’t know. You were smiling downright evilly when I came in so I just assumed.” He boops my nose. “And you ratted yourself out.”

I narrow my eyes at him, blowing some air out my nose - a gesture that has become my only way of showing anger towards him. I literally can’t even voice when I’m upset with him cause the grudge lasts like .5 seconds. I let him get away with more than he should.

Seeing as how I can’t argue to his statement, I lean back into his chest and pull out my phone to pass the time while I pretend to give him the silent treatment. Among my notifications is one for Rae’s stream. I smile and tap it, being taken to her YouTube channel and her live stream.

Just when the stream loads, Rae finds my dead body in Storage.

“Oh, nooooooo! Y/N!“ She wines as she goes over to it, “Sean must’ve killed her.” She reports the body and unmutes herself in game, “The body’s in Storage. I was on my way to call an emergency meeting cause I saw Sean vent in Security.”

“WHAT?!“ Sean exclaims in shock, “I didn’t! Rae’s lying. I swear I didn’t! I wasn’t even in Security!“

“Sean has been following me around this whole time. Just saying.“ Ken joins the discussion, throwing even more suspicion on Sean.

“We gotta vote someone.“ Charlie says, “Might as well be the most sus person at the moment.“

The voting results show all the little astronaut icons on Sean except his which is on Rae. Sean gets launched into space and the game continues. Having muted her mic in-game, Rae speaks up: “Y/N has been avenged. No one kills my best friend.”

I’m staring at my phone screen, eyes wide, eyebrows raised, a huge smile on my face. I take a glance at Corpse out of the corner of my eye and see he’s just as pleasantly surprised as I am.

“For those of you asking if I’m still mad at her and Corpse, the answer’s no. Actually, I think I was never mad. I was just in shock and a little hurt that I wasn’t made aware sooner.“ Rae says as she keeps wandering around the map, “Then I realized not talking to my best friend hurt more than the betrayal, you know. The only reason I still pretend is because it’s really funny to see her trying to soften me up.“ She laughs, “But yeah. I don’t know what I’d do without her or Corpse in my life. I love them both and love them even more together. My best friends are dating, I still can’t wrap my brain around that! They are sooo cute, you guys! I wish they posted more content of them together. I’m literally simping over their relationship! But shh, don’t tell em I said that.”

I laugh, overjoyed by what I just heard. I knew she couldn’t still be mad at us. I know she has every right to be, but she’s too sweet to actually hold a grudge against anyone ever.

I suddenly want nothing more than to give her an enormous hug and hold onto her for as long as she’d let me. I just now realize how lonely it feels to have never hugged your best friend because you haven’t hung out together in person. The only reason Rae now knows what I look like is because I sent her a full body picture of myself as one of my sad attempts to get her to start talking to us again. We have never met in person, and that thought kills me. It makes me impatient for this pandemic to end even more than before.

“Told you there was nothing to worry about.“ Corpse’s arms tighten their hold on my body, pulling me even closer which I didn’t know was possible. The most fulfilling and endearing feeling - being in the arms of a loved one. Being held so close and so tightly that you feel like you’re untouchable. Like you two can’t be hurt by anything in the world as long as you have each other.

“Yeah, you were right.“ I sigh in content, putting my phone down and covering his hands with mine, our rings clinking quietly when they touch.

“As usual...“ he whispers theatrically with his lips against my hair.

I playfully roll my eyes, catching glimpse of the screen showing Rae’s demise.

“Oh no, they caught her.“ I say, a bit disappointed she didn’t win and more than a bit responsible for her defeat.

I somehow manage to convince myself to get untangled from Corpse’s embrace and join the new round. I hear him groan as I settle my computer in my lap, unmuting my mic.

“See ya, kitten.“ Corpse kisses my temple, standing up.

“Oh my God, you two are too cute.“ Poki says sweetly, having heard what Corpse said to me.

“SIMP!“ Sean and Felix shout in unison causing the whole lobby to laugh. Corpse is as red as Rae’s avatar as he exists our room, running down the hallway.

“Ok, ok, ok. Hold on. I have to address this. I really hadn’t stepped foot in Security, let alone vented in there. Rae why were you lying?“ Sean’s voice cuts through the teasing directed towards Corpse and I.

“While we’re on that topic...“ Felix speaks up as well, making me break out in a nervous sweat, “Y/N, you literally saw Rae kill me, but you said you didn’t see anyone.“ He laughs, “Not gonna lie, I was a bit pissed.“

The call falls silent for about five seconds until Rae and I speak simultaneously.

“I was avenging Y/N.“

“I was helping Rae.“

Silence follows our statements, not for long though, as our friends break out in amused laughter.

“Fuck’s sake, you two make a good team.“ Sean says through genuine laughter which Rae and I soon join him in.

Felix and Sean and the rest of the lobby forgive us for throwing the game from both the crewmate and impostor’s side and we move onto another round. This time I have only one task in Electrical which I leave for last as always. I don’t feel like dying right from the get-go. I start by doing the card swipe in Admin and then the fuel task in Storage. As I make my way to Upper Engine, Corpse leaves Electrical, falling in step with me. I immediately get nervous, but still make my way to where I’m supposed to go, hoping he’d go his own way eventually.

I stay wary of my boyfriend as I do my task, praying he won’t take my head off. When the task is finished, I find I’m trapped in the room with the doors shut. And Corpse right there. With every right and opportunity to kill me and vent. No one would know. No one saw us.

That nervous sweat is back.

I’m counting my last seconds of being alive.

And it happens...

A body is reported

“Oh than you so so so much! Corpse was gonna kill me in Upper Engine!“ I don’t let the person who reported the body speak, thanking them for my survival. “I was sure I was a goner.“

“Babe, come on now. You know I wouldn’t kill you even if I was an impostor. I love you too much.“ Corpse hurries to defend himself, “I’m following you around to keep you safe.“

I can tell he’s capping, but I have no concrete proof. He knows I’m onto him. His best bet is having me killed by the other impostor. He might have been capping the majority of his defense, but I know he won’t kill me.

“I’ll vote for myself because of that one.“ I mumble

The vote is skipped except the one vote I placed on myself and the round continues. I follow Corpse around the whole time, making sure he’s completing tasks - not that I can be 100% certain he’s actually completing them.

All is well until we walk into Admin and find Felix there, uploading data. Corpse, dead-ass, goes up to him and kills him, reporting the body right afterwards.

“IT’S CORPSE!“ I don’t give him a chance to start his brainwashing of the rest of the players. “Felix, this is my redemption for leaving your death unavenged last round.“

“Yeah, it’s me.“ Corpse laughs, that adorable laugh of his melting me despite the need to stay strong and carry out my argument, “Just vote me out so I can go troll Y/N.“

“Sounds like a plan to me.“ Ken says, the remainder of the crewmates, and the impostor probably, agreeing with him.

The votes are put in, all on Corpse obviously, and he is sent off into space. Not even five seconds later I hear his footsteps approaching.

I look up when he pops his head in the room and says, “I have come to annoy you to death with my love for you.”

I can’t help but laugh, shaking my head. The things this man does to me are insane. It’s insane that I let him.

It’s amazing, really. We’re amazing.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I pat the spot on the bed next to me, “I’ll allow it. But only cause I love you too.”

@susceptible-but-siriusexual @simonsbluee @save-the-sky @hacker-ghost @itsminniekat @bi-andready-tocry @imtiredaffff @jazzkaurtheglorious @hereforbeebo @fandomgirl17 @chrysanthykios @maehemscorpyus @loraleiix @letsloveimagines @annshit @i-cant-choose-a-username-help @enigmaticmaze @divine-artemis

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moxfirefly · 4 years ago

Text

Good afternoon, this has been in the works for a while now and I finally got around to finishing it and being pretty content of it (this is gonna go up on AO3 soon along with the others that aren’t request) but I wanted to post it here first. Enjoy!

Rated Explicit (18+ only)

“Wish you were here right now

All of the things I'd do”

Gaming was always an escape.

From childhood to adulthood. There was some gaming equipment in your hands, controls, handhelds, keyboards and so on. There was just something calming about entering a fantasy world and immersing yourself in scenery and stories that made you stray from bad days and long nights.

For Donatello it was the same.

On one of his many supply scavenges Splinter had found a dumpster near a toy store that was going out of business. It was a memorable haul for them. What they expected to be routine things mixed with some type of groceries had turned into literal Christmas in July. Stuffed animals, board games, action figures and even a few gaming consoles with some cartridges and cd’s. Noticeably they were considered damaged or improperly manufactured, but they didn’t care and for Donnie he had spent a good week and a half fixing up the Nintendo and Play Station 2 consoles back into working conditions.

That alone had been plenty for him but nevertheless Mikey being so excited about playing wanted him to join him. They had played for hours and each disc or cartridge they tried out held a new story, a new set of controls to learn, new visuals and such. He was immediately hooked.

When he had gotten the first parts to start building a PC from scratch he knew there would be another world of possibilities for games.

Now gaming is a leisure for Donnie. Something he does for enjoyment and an escape when his projects become too much. The world of online gaming allowed him to also explore the possibilities of chatting with others though, the humans they were not allowed to see or speak to (with the exception of their Hogosha) but needless to say it wasn’t like Donnie broadcasted his identity and whereabouts. More so these people only came to game and speak game.

Donnie absolutely does detest the unnecessary sexism that gaming brings. Many a time he had read on chats or heard on his head set such derogatory comments thrown at female players. Never the one to stand such misogynistic behavior (he was raised better and had heard enough horror stories from April) he always shot that shit down quickly. Given his status as being far above his gaming peers he had developed respect and none of them ever shot back at him.

That’s how he runs into you.

On the opposing team nonetheless.

Once your female voice ran through the ears of the group he had been stuck in, the comments began to rain down. Some colorful, some lazy and some downright disgusting. Donnie had had enough and with some of his more illegal methods, had managed to push out the players in his party and send the audio recording to the email of the developers.

On exceptionally petty days he did far worse.

You had been stunned, wondering why the gang of immature boys had suddenly disappeared. Only one of them remained with the gamer tag specifying ‘Don_DuzMachines’ you couldn’t help but giggle at it.

You had asked if the sudden disappearance had been a weird glitch and if Don (as you assumed you should call him) had anything to do about it.

“Let’s just say I’ve got my ways” His soft voice rang through your headset.

“Well it’s hardly the first time I’ve had a gang of prepubescent boys tell me to suck their dicks” You started to move away in the map but stopped abruptly.

“Hey do you wanna play something else?” You asked tentatively. “Figured the least I can do is thank you” Donnie sat back pensively, well there was no harm in that now was there?

And so it started innocently.

Co-op games even the occasional match against one another. Each game you two always spoke through your headsets. Mostly banter about strategy or directions for who to do what or the occasional friendly jabs. You hadn’t revealed much that wasn’t the nickname you used as your gamer tag, and well Don had basically done the same.

That is until you decide to poke a little into his life. “You go to college?” You had asked, fingers gliding over the keyboard as you both partook in a raid. Donnie hadn’t expected such a question and he didn’t necessarily want to divulge much, he opted for a more ambiguous response. “I do my own studying, sort of like home schooling if you will?” Well he wasn’t wrong, Splinter had been both father and teacher to them, Donnie had just excelled more quickly and soon enough he was teaching his brothers on the academic side.

“You broke too, huh? Trust me it’s not worth the insane debt you’ll develop in six years that’ll take forty years to pay off” You chuckled with a hint of bitterness, Donnie couldn’t help but laugh and snort.

“That’s cute” You said sincerely. Donnie smiled, heat creeping up his neck.

How innocent things had been at the start.

For six months the two of you divulged little to no information. You never asked to video chat and Donnie never asked for your socials. It had just been a mutual agreement to keep the mystery that just wasn’t verbalized. Maybe it was for the better, because surely what had began as a gaming buddies situation had escalated to, well Donnie couldn’t really explain.

The first instance the two of you had been stuck on a map solving intricate puzzles. It was one of the more relaxed games the two of your partook in together when you didn’t want to deal with other players in a lobby.

“Dating apps are a nightmare, they’re only worth it for getting dumb funny stories” You had been playing but also checking some of the matches you’ve gotten on a site. Donnie swallowed, why did that settle so oddly in his stomach?

“Well any funny ones you’d like to share?” Don asked curiously hoping he wasn’t over stepping any boundaries. “One guy wanted me to cover my feet in marmalade, I really almost hit fuck it and did it” You couldn’t help but smile when Don choked, coughed and bursted out laughing.

“What kink is that even related to? I mean I know people enjoy feet but marmalade?” He was bewildered. “Come on Don don’t kink shame the poor guy, who are you to police his eclectic culinary desires?” Now the two of you couldn’t help but burst into another fit of laughter. Both your avatars were idle standing, the game somewhat abandoned in favor for the conversation.

“Hey I’m not kink shaming, we all have our weird kinks” Donnie smiled sitting back on his swivel chair. You clicked out of the dating site, chin resting on your hand. “Are we finally having this conversation? Cause I love this shit, it’s my bread and butter” You sat back in your gaming chair, tucking your knees.

Donnie felt so shy but the barrier of mistery the two of you had built urged him on. He was curious, like stupid curious what you looked like and while he had everything to figure out exactly where you were, it wasn’t morally correct for him. So why not just indulge in the conversation?

“Well it’s not feet, sorry to disappoint” He heard you laugh, an infectious sound he had grown to enjoy so much. “Feet are so passé anyways, what about bondage?” You spun slowly in your chair, the sounds of Don adjusting and clicking on the keyboard ringing in your ears.

“Bondage is a go, especially sensory deprivation” He was checking some documents April had forwarded to him in regards to a case they were dealing with, but he could multitask. You made an approving noise, nodding while taking a sip of your drink. “Into that D/s stuff?” You asked wanting to see what else he might like.

“Well yeah, but I do enjoy more um... Fem Dom stuff” He finished up the email he wrote out for April and hit send. “A man with taste, not something we get often” You chuckled but decided to add. “I wouldn’t mind having a guy submit to me” You bit the inside of your cheek a little shy suddenly.

Something about that statement made heat spread south for Donnie. The concept of being dominated? By a woman? He peaked a look behind him, pushing one side of his headset down to hear what his brothers might be up to but he heard only music and chatting voices.

“What’s your favorite thing?” He inquired almost too softly.

“Erotic ASMR” There was no trace of embarrassment in your voice and that somehow made Donnie hot.

“Maybe we frequent the same sites for that” Don boldly threw out. You made an approving face before sitting forward and typing on your keyboard. A beat or two later Donnie saw an email notification from you on one of his many burner emails. He opened it finding links to audios from various sites all catered to erotic audios. Donnie whistled, this was a gold mine and true to his predictions you did indeed have some of his favorite sites to peruse.

“It’s not just male audios by the way, there’s women too” You sat back once again, nervously playing with your hair. “Thanks... Well I do like hearing both” Donnie confessed, voice avoiding a stutter.

You grinned. Oh he was even more fun that you could’ve expected.

Curiously enough that had been the tamest experience into yours and Donnie’s sex talks. Because it hadn’t really stopped at that, they progressively escalated little by little. Fave kinks had turned to fave sites, fave sites had turned into fave videos. Donnie never pictured he’d share his hidden folder with a stranger no less.

You nor Donnie could really say how the two of you had ended up one late night, with yet another abandoned game, talking about weird but satisfying cyber sex experiences. Some of your stories had been on the more comical side but a few had riled Donnie up to the point that he couldn’t ignore it. There was a shift in your voice as well, an allure that enticed him.

“Can I be honest?” You licked your suddenly dry lips. Donnie tensed momentarily, not sure what to expect. “Of course, please” You squeezed your thighs together, ‘please’ shouldn’t sound so good coming out of his mouth. You trace lazy circles on your thighs, something pushed you. “I’m kinda turned on by this...by talking to you about all this stuff” Maybe this was overstepping it, surely there was nothing wrong between two adult friends discussing such matters.

There was no need to tell Don that you had yearned to put a face to the name. But his hesitance spoke of insecurities and you could understand that.

“I am too...” Donnie looked up at what he called a ceiling in his home, the darkness of the sewer system and concrete. He’d never have a chance with you, it was a deeply rooted desire for intimacy and if virtually he could obtain it then so be it.

For all your boldness you felt a wave of bashfulness hit, crashed around your self confidence. Then Donnie steps up and you feel your toes curl in excitement. “Do you want to have a better experience?” Donnie runs both hands down his face, who was he to provide better experiences, he’d never even physically had a partner. The slow sigh that escapes your throat is comforting static in his headset. “Yeah, yeah I really do actually” You feel a smile etch itself on your lips.

“You can call me Donnie” It’s the closest to his name, and truthfully he really wants to hear you say it.

“Y/N,” You say to which Donnie makes an approving noise, he finds your name to be pretty. He rolls it in his mouth, testing the syllables, he can envision moaning it, well he wants to moan it if he can be completely honest. He wants to put a face to that name but he quickly pushes the thought out. There’s a pregnant pause where neither of you engage or make the first attempt. Not wanting to let this mood flee, Donnie swallows and closes his eyes. The hum of the abandoned game grounding him.

“Say my name again” It’s not a forceful demand, all the contrary he wants to hear the pitch in your voice when you say it, he wants to picture how each tone would variate depending on what he would do or say. “Donnie...” You smile to yourself when you say it, a hint of desire nestled in it and Don notices that and wants more of it.

There’s a lengthy sigh from your behalf, hands wandering up your thighs towards your chest. “I’d like to be there right now, would like to say it against your lips” Your bold confessions makes Donnie’s pulse quicken. He runs a ghosting touch up his plastron, the vision of a delicate hand doing it. The imaginary weight of you on his lap grinding down on his hard member. Donnie grips himself through his shorts a soft groan escaping his parted lips.

“Want you to kiss me” He swallows dryly, the approving noise you make pushing him forward. “Feel your lips all over, feel your mouth around me...” He lifts his hips, hand cupping himself and the small hitch in your breath is a sound he wants permanently recorded in his brain.

“God are you big? I bet you are” You kneed your breast, thumb and forefinger pinching the sensitive nubs until they’re perked. Donnie smirks to himself, freeing his aching member and looking down at himself. Mutant genes aside he feels somewhat shamefully proud of his cock, he wonders if you would like it... deeply buried within you. “Yeah I am, I think you can take it something tells me” You catch that teasing tone and the urge to swallow him whole and make him see stars is too much.

Your hand finds its way into your underwear, the warm wetness making you moan as you tease your middle finger between the lips to find your sensitive nub there. You bite back another lengthy moan but recover enough to breathlessly say, “oh fuck, Donnie” and that very sound makes him shiver. Never did he think he’d hear something so temptingly good, said with such sincerity. God the things he would do to smell your arousal right now, to taste the wetness. “Push two fingers in slowly” Donnie almost pleas, his voice shakey, hand pumping his cock at a steady pace. You do as he wishes, your gutted moan making more precum gather at the tip of his member.

“God-shit- you sound so good, wish you were riding my big dick right now” He wants to chastise himself for saying something like that, but he can’t deny that statement shakes something in you. He can hear it, the sound of your fingers mixed with a continuously rising string of moans. “Ohmygod” Words tumble out strewn together by your pleasure. “Donnie please, please fuck me harder” That alone makes him sit up and push forwards, one hand on his desk as the other works himself up in upward twisting strokes.

Donnie can’t erase the idea of slamming into you right here on his desk, maybe bent over, maybe you’ll let him cum on your face...

He pushes the idea away, he can’t envision your face now, not right now, not when your moans have you sounding this deliciously in need. You’re plunging two fingers into your core as your free hand runs firm circles around your clit. “Christ Donnie you sound so good baby” You moan, perspiration covering your body and Donnie can only groan his approval.

There’s a few minutes where it’s just the two of you lost in your own pleasure together. The constant chants of ‘fuck’ and ‘god’ and ‘yes’ mixed between the two of you. “Say it... again” Donnie groans out, hand quickening, briefly gathering some saliva and letting it fall on his hard member for better traction. “Don-oh, Donnie cum in me!” You’re so far gone, not caring what comes out of your mouth. The wet sounds in your head set and a vibration you figured could be static mixed with his groans was all you heard.

Donnie’s hips twitch, feels that request swim inside of his brain and the image of burying himself as deeply as you could take is all he needs. Just as your moans rise in crescendo he feels the first twitch and relief of his orgasm overtake him. He’s never felt it hit him this hard it knocks the wind out of him, each rope shooting out onto his hand and floor. In his minds eye though, it’s your suffocating heat taking it, milking him until he’s a shivering mess. It plays perfectly like a movie, he swears he can even feel your lips at his neck and arms holding him tight.

Your sounds are enough to keep him stroking, the way your voice pitched up with the sound of his name entwined, forever recorded in his brain. Your entire body tensed to the point of uncomfortable but it was impossible to stop abruptly when he sounded so lost in you. Your leg shakes and stiffens and it takes every inch of control to not become liquid and slip away into comforting bliss.

Eventually the sounds of heavy breathing slowly but surely settling are the only things the two of you can hear in your ears. There’s a mess, for you and for him. The understanding of things transpired crossing each of you two’s brains. Should you speak first? Should he?

“Um, you with me?” You settle, skin sweaty and mouth dry. There’s movement on the other line, a quiet cuss here and there and you smile. “Yeah, sorry just... made a mess” His voice has that sheepish tone and you can’t help but chuckle.

“Great thing about being a girl, we can conceal the evidence better” You stretch your aching legs enjoying each joint pop. “The female anatomy never seizes to amaze me, trust me” Donnie leans back in his chair, napkin cleaning any other soiled spot.

The silence was somewhat comfortable, the buzzing of good chemicals slowly settling.

“Was this okay?” He asked, hesitant tone in your ears.

“More than okay if you ask me” You kept it light not wanting him to feel odd or even ashamed.

You ventured on slowly, forming the question in your brain and bouncing it back and forward with a swallow. “If, and I mean if you want to, we can maybe do this from time to time” You worried a thumbnail between your teeth. Donnie’s gaze watching the idle screen of the abandoned game, he thought hard but briefly.

“I... yeah I would” He smiles to himself, even if the nagging thought that this might not last clutches the back of his mind. Why ruin a good thing? This was good more than good and you suggested to continue.

He doesn’t want to preoccupy his brain with scenarios, or if that dreaded ‘let’s meet’ sentence decides to cross your lips. If this is the inch of intimacy he gets to have and it’s with you, who he has grown so fond of, then he’s selfishly taking that inch and guarding it with his life.

Mutely you both remain on the line, no words spoken from the agreement, just simply enjoying that the two of you were present.

Even if not physically.

#tmnt bayverse #tmnt donatello x female reader #donnie tmnt #donatello tmnt #tmnt donatello x reader #tmnt donnie x reader #tmnt donnie #tmnt donatello #donatello x reader #donnie x reader #Donatello #Donnie #ns*w #oneshot

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the-fusionist · 4 years ago

Note

Give me damianette fluff or jasonette fluff with a song

A/N: Hello, all! I am back! This is a very late answer, which I'm sorry for @rebecarojas07. But, it's here now! I went a little off from the prompt and it's a little angsty in the beginning, but it gets better! Also, constructive criticism is welcome, since its been a while. Also, no beta, we die like Jason Todd. I wrote 1800 words just now and I am hoping they mesh well together.

Warnings: Some cursing, slight angst, cheating, hand holding, and kissing

Song: PUBLIC - Make You Mine

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

Marinette cried as she sat on the rooftop while Tikki hugged her.

She was here in Gotham as Ladybug in order to deal with a crisis involving a missing miraculous with Zatanna and Batman, along with several other American heroes she had gotten to know. The mission had taken her a month and she had needed to go undercover for a large portion of the mission, severing contact with her boyfriend, Adrien Agreste. It should all have been fine, they trusted each other.

Now he’s a former boyfriend.

Alya Cesaire was a rock in Marinette’s life, and she was always there for her. If it hadn’t been for Alya Cesaire, her most reliable confidante, the break up might have never happened so soon and she would have stayed oblivious. If it hadn’t been for Alya’s pictures, Marinette would probably have never believed it herself. Five pictures of Adrien Agreste and Lila Rossi, making out on several different occasions.

She wanted to believe it wasn’t true, but if she was being honest with herself she should have seen it coming. Heck, Tikki had seen it coming. They had been having more arguments as of recently. And the time that she had spent apart from Adrien on a mission had simply driven them further apart from each other. She thought back to the times she had complained to Adrien about how Lila was always so touchy with him during photoshoots, he said that it was all business that he couldn’t avoid because of his father. That she was overreacting and being too clingy. That there was nothing between him and Lila.

But those pictures existed. They were in broad daylight, and both Adrien Agreste and Lila Rossi seemed to have no shame, acting in public spaces. She sent one text to Adrien.

We're over.

The message was read, and there was no reply.

That was a month ago. Marinette was getting better, very slowly. Plagg and Tikki stuck with her and supported her, but Marinette still had some nights where she refused to talk to anyone and cried alone. She had set up an arrangement with her parents so she could stay in Gotham, as she needed time away from the city of love. She could never have been more thankful.

Especially when she saw the viral video of someone throwing a bag of flour at Adrien Agreste and Lila Rossi during a photoshoot. Marinette had burst out laughing when she saw the video, and she had a feeling her parents were behind it and had gotten away with it.

But still, sometimes there were days where she couldn’t shrug off the tears. They flowed freely as she swung her spotted legs from her seat on the edge of a random rooftop. She had finished patrol, and she had begun to think back to all the nights she used to spend patrolling Paris with Adrien. She felt her heart seize as she gazed out into the grey landscape of Gotham.

Well, I will call you darlin' and everything will be okay

Suddenly, she heard a throat clear behind her and a cough.

Turning around, she found herself staring at the Red Hood. She quickly wiped at her eyes in an attempt to hide that she had been crying. She had heard rumors of the Red Hood, especially of how he often murdered criminals and at some point in the past had been the leader of a criminal empire.

But, Batman trusted him. And she trusted Batman, so she should be able to trust him and this was a completely safe situation. At least, that’s what she told herself.

She heard him clear his throat again, and she realized she must have gotten lost in her thoughts. She focused back on him, albeit it was somewhat warily.

“Hello darlin’, shit wait, that was too cringey. Damn, I’m sorry.”

She felt her lips quirk upwards in a smile.

The Red Hood coughed, before holding out a steaming cup of coffee to her, and in a questioning tone asked, “Let me try again. You’re Ladybug, right? I saw you having a moment here earlier while I was on patrol, so I just wanted to give you this and offer an ear to listen to you rant if you want?”

Marinette felt her heartbeat quicken, and she felt herself blush under her mask as she replied, “Thank you so much. You’re the Red Hood, right? It’s nice to meet you. And yeah, I would like to rant, that would be super nice.”

So he sat down next to her. She doesn’t know what made her do so, but she told him almost everything. How her former boyfriend had cheated on her while she was on a mission, and how she felt so betrayed when she found out. She told him all about the loneliness and the bitter homesickness she constantly felt.

And he listened, without pity. He listened to every word she spoke, nodding at the right moments of her story, reassuring her she was right, and cussing out Adrien Agreste with her.

That was the first time she met Jason Todd, the man underneath the helmet of the Red Hood.

'Cause I know that I am yours and you are mine

Several months passed, and their relationship progressed from there. The two fell into comfortable friendship and eventually revealed their identities.

But, Marinette couldn’t deny that she had caught herself blushing as she stared at Jason during training or patrol, admiring him.

It was a similar situation for Jason. He still curses himself for the time that Marinette had smiled at him as she swung by during patrol, and he had been so caught up with staring at her dazzling smile that he didn’t notice himself walk right off a building. He was fine, his pride bruised more than anything else.

The point was, they fit well together. They bantered and seemed to constantly toe the line between friendship and something more, to the point where others began to take notice. Jason’s siblings teased him, while Alya and Nino would give Marinette suggestive looks over facetime whenever she mentioned Jason.

They got along so well, and everyone could see it. Marinette and Jason were also starting to believe it themselves. Marinette felt that she was his, and Jason knew that he was hers. They had each other wrapped around their fingers, without even realizing.

Doesn't matter anyway

Marinette was on patrol with Jason when she checked her phone and tears of anger welled up in her eyes. It was a message from Adrien.

Lila and I are over now. We should get back together now, I miss what we had.

Jason saw Marinette’s face change, and he felt angry too when Marinette showed him the text. Adrien Agreste was fucking pathetic.

“Who does he think he is? He thinks he can cheat on me and get back together? He doesn’t even have a place in my life anymore. He doesn’t even matter to me anymore.”

“You don’t need that fucker, Marinette, like how dare he act like you guys can get back together after what he did? Honestly, he’s fucking pathetic. I bet he’s sitting all fucking alone in his apartment after breaking up with Lila, thinking he matters to you. What a pretentious shit stain.”

Marinette felt herself move before she could properly think about what she was doing. Jason hadn’t anticipated her action, and he felt himself let out a small laugh of surprise when he felt Marinette hug him, her face pressed into his leather jacket.

He couldn’t help but softly smile when he heard a muffled, “Thank you, Jason, for being here for me.”

In the night, we'll take a walk, it's nothing funny

Marinette heard a knock on her apartment window. She walked over and opened it to find Jason standing on her fire escape, giving her a sheepish smile.

“Jason, it's 2:00 a.m. and it isn’t even a patrol night? God damn it, Jason, I know that I don’t sleep at night, but what could you want right now?”

Jason’s smile grew brighter, “Want to get waffles and coffee?”

Marinette’s mood quickly changed, and she felt her lips quirk, “You want me to go out in the dark, all alone with you, to get waffles and coffee?”

“No funny business, just waffles and coffee.”

Marinette laughed before she quickly threw on a jacket and joined Jason on the fire escape, before descending down with him and beginning their moderate walk to a nearby café.

Just to talk

On the way, they talked about anything and everything. Books, fashion, superhero business, you name it. They were at peace.

Put your hand in mine

As they walked into the café, Jason noticed another man, who looked like he was in his early twenties, eyeing Marinette. He felt jealousy crawl up his spine, and he knew his eyes were flashing green at the moment.

Marinette had noticed, though she pretended not to. She also tried to pretend not to notice when Jason casually slipped his hand into her own, though she knew she was furiously blushing. Jason was flustered too, and she heard him stutter as he gave his order to a waitress.

For the rest of the night, their hands remained clasped. Tikki was giggling quietly from the inside of Marinette's purse.

You know that I want to be with you all the time

Though they never directly spoke about the hand holding, the two of them definitely gradually spent more time with each other.

They frequented various cafes and libraries and stores, in and out of costume. Someone once swore they saw the Red Hood and Ladybug at a movie theater throwing popcorn at each other. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before they got together, and several bets were made.

You know that I won't stop until I make you mine

Flash forward a week, and Marinette has asked Jason out on a date. He says yes. They’re both bright red when they enter the café, and this time their hands are clasped from the moment they enter.

The same waitress recognizes them, and she asks who asked the other out. She quickly finds out that Marinette made the first move. When she goes back to her place behind the counter, Marinette and Jason see a coworker slide her twenty bucks. They laugh, and enjoy the rest of their date, content with each other’s serene presence.

Until I make you mine

After they leave the café, a strong gust of wind blows. Marinette slightly shivers under the bite of the wind, before she feels a large warmth envelope her. Jason’s leather jacket is draped over her shoulders, and the man in question is gazing at her lovingly.

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” she said before she reached up and pressed a warm kiss to his lips.

The End!

TAG LIST: @theatreandcomicfreak @18-fandoms-unite-08 @mochegato @princessanimeangel11 @maribatlife

If you would like to be tagged in other works in the future, please let me know!

#jasonette #marinette x jason #jason todd x marinette dupain cheng #maribat au #maribat #ml x dc au #ml x dc #ladybug x red hood #jasonette fluff #slight angst

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eliemo · 4 years ago

Text

Permafrost: Chapter 1

Summary: After Virgil agrees to follow Roman into the Imagination, a shift in the weather and an unfortunate misstep sends Virgil plummeting into uncharted waters. If only it didn't take a matter of life or death and a race against time to realize the Prince might not hate him after all.

TW: Drowning, progressing hypothermia, effects of severe cold

Notes: Romantic Prinxiety (pre relationship, they’re pining idiots) Right now I think this will only be a couple chapters, but let me know if I should make a taglist for this story!

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

“This is stupid,” Virgil said for the third time in the last ten minutes. “We’re gonna freeze to death.”

It was very clearly pissing Roman off, and if he wasn’t so miserable he’d be grinning like an idiot at the Prince’s clear exasperation. “We’re not going to freeze. Don’t be dramatic, Negative Nancy, that’s my thing.”

Virgil scoffed, glancing up at the expanse of snow covered trees towering overhead, branches bare and twisted, coated in sparkling white. It felt endless, everything around them perfectly identical and a little overwhelming.

He shuddered as the wind picked up again, drowning out anything he might have been about to say, and he absently shook off snow sticking to his shoes, really wishing he’d decided to wear his combat boots today.

Then again, he hadn’t expected to be trapped in the Imagination in below freezing weather.

“Let me complain, Princey,” he said, hoping that their familiar banter could make this whole thing suck a little bit less. “You’re the one that trapped me in here.”

“You’re the one that agreed to follow me,” Roman shot back, a little more sharp than Virgil had been hoping for. “You didn’t have to.”

“You invited me. And someone has to make sure you don’t get killed in here.”

“I’m perfectly capable,” Roman said. “The cold is no match for a dashing Prince! Besides, the beast is dead, my realm is perfectly safe when I need it to be- if it weren’t for someone refusing to enjoy the scenery, this might actually be a nice walk.”

“It’s freezing and we have to walk for another hour,” Virgil argued. “How the hell am I supposed to enjoy this?”

It hadn’t been snowing when they’d first stepped into the Imagination, some two hours ago now. It had been warm and sunny, the world around them lush and green, bright and inviting as Virgil followed Roman on his apparently routine adventure.

He hoped it hadn’t been obvious how excited he’d been when Roman had asked him to come along. He and the Prince had never been close, (that was putting it lightly, Virgil was all too aware of how much Roman hated Anxiety) but ever since Virgil had revealed his name things had been...better.

Not great, nowhere near perfect, but better. Their fights had started to devolve into banter, and Virgil found he actually enjoyed talking to Roman now. He wasn’t reduced to a villain anymore, and he’d never actually realized just how much he hated the tight feeling in his chest when Thomas had always dismissed him as the bad guy. He’d been pushing the hurt down for so long and now…

Now wasn’t the time to think about it. Now was the time to focus on moving forward, as shaky as the progress was sometimes. It was still progress.

Virgil knew Roman didn’t like him, and he probably had no intention of even being real friends, any effort to be polite for Patton and Logan’s sake only.

Which Virgil might have been able to live with, if he hadn’t recently figured out that he really, really liked Roman.

He’d sort of...not actually hated the Prince for a while now, just another hopeless, gnawing feeling that drove him to consider ducking out in the first place.

The feelings had come out of nowhere, slowly sneaking up on him and only growing now that they were closer, and he still wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it.

The things Roman did that Virgil had once thought were annoying became...begrudgingly endearing. His rants, his dramatic gestures, the constant singing and humming under his breath...it was all so stupidly charming. Roman was funny and kind and passionate and brave and...and Virgil might have developed a little bit of a crush.

Dammit.

He knew nothing would come from it. He could be pretty stupid, but he wasn’t stupid enough to think otherwise. Roman had declared him an enemy since day one, and Virgil was just beginning to hope the Prince might actually tolerate him enough to call him a friend. Just a friend.

But Roman had invited him into the Imagination today, to be an extra set of eyes while he slayed the monster patrolling the realm, and Virgil had agreed without a second thought. If he and Roman could just learn to coexist...Virgil didn’t need anything else. Anything was better than being hated.

And having Roman as a friend was far from the worst thing in the world. It still gave him the Prince’s smiles, his laughs, and his company.

That being said, trudging through the snow and freezing his ass off for the next hour was not how he’d like to be spending the day. Why couldn’t Princey invite him to do something normal like watching a movie?

“Aren’t you supposed to be Creativity?” Virgil called over the wind picking up. God, it was cold. “Why can’t you just change the weather back?”

Roman had his back to him, keeping a few paces ahead, but Virgil could practically feel his eye roll. “I don’t control the weather here. Thomas does.”

“Thomas?”

“Not intentionally,” Roman said. “When it’s snowing like this, it probably means he’s worried or…or stressed about something.”

Virgil didn’t miss the slight hesitation, the way Roman glanced back at him, and he instinctively hunched his shoulders and pulled his hood tighter around himself.

It wasn’t his fault. He knew everyone liked to point fingers and place the blame on Anxiety whenever Thomas wasn’t feeling his best, but Virgil wasn’t here to hurt him. He just wanted to help, and he’d been trying so hard to be better lately, but he still managed to be the bad guy.

He opened his mouth to mutter an apology the Prince would probably only scoff at, but Roman beat him to it.

“Ignore that,” he said quickly, tone suddenly nowhere near his usual bravado. “I didn’t mean to imply...nevermind. Sorry.”

It was clearly forced and a little desperate, just like it had been in front of the others whenever Roman would catch himself on an insult or a nickname, but Virgil found he appreciated the effort all the same. As awkward as it was.

“It’s fine,” Virgil said. “Seriously, it’s whatever. I’ll...I can check on Thomas when we get back.”

Roman didn’t respond, but he did look over once again to flash Virgil a genuine smile, and he forcibly pushed down the butterflies rising up in his chest. It was just Roman. He was not about to get flustered because Roman had smiled at him.

But maybe it was a sign that they were getting somewhere. Maybe-

“Shit!”

Virgil froze, Roman’s curse almost drowned out by the sudden CRACK that echoed through the snowy forest. A chunk of ice broke under Roman’s boot, just big enough for him to stumble, his leg disappearing up to his knee.

“God dammit that’s freezing!”

“I thought the cold didn’t bother you,” Virgil teased before he could stop himself. He moved to help, only for Roman to hold out a warning hand. “You ok?”

“I’m fine.” The Prince wobbled a bit before he managed to pull his leg up and out of the ice, the soaked and dripping cloth clinging to his skin. “Except that my leg is going to fall off!”

Virgil couldn’t imagine how cold that must be, to feel icy cold wind against soaked clothes, but he could recognize that Roman wasn’t actually hurt or scared, despite the way he’d started shivering a bit. Thank god the water was only up to his knee.

“Stop panicking,” Virgil said, and smirked despite his own rising worry. “That’s my thing, Princey.”

Roman scoffed and shook out his leg, drops of water seeping into the plush white snow. The ice they hadn’t even realized they’d been walking on creaked under the movement and Virgil paled, eyes flying to Roman who quickly noticed the anxious side’s distress.

“Relax,” the Prince said. “It was just a weak spot, and it’s only a couple inches deep. I could reach the bottom.”

“We should still be worried about getting our clothes wet in this weather.” It seemed to have gotten colder, even as Virgil remained perfectly dry. “Didn’t Logan do a whole lecture about hypothermia a few years ago?”

“We’re not getting hypothermia, Panic at the Everywhere. Logan gives a lecture on everything. Worst case scenario is I come down with a little cold, and our dear Patton feels guilty and smothers me for a few days.”

Virgil laughed, carefully stepping around the hole Roman had created. “I’m pretty sure it’s not Patton’s fault you’re so clumsy.”

“No, but he practically forced me to bring you out here.” And just like that Virgil’s good mood was gone, stomach twisting uncomfortably as the words set in.

It shouldn’t be a surprise- of course Roman wouldn’t voluntarily spend the day with him. Patton wanted everyone to get along for Thomas’s sake, and he’d made Roman drag Virgil along like an unwanted nuisance.

“Oh.”

“So if we look miserable enough when we get back, we can coax Pat into making us cookies and hot chocolate,” Roman said, and he didn’t seem to notice Virgil’s shift in mood. “Just try to watch your step, ok?”

Roman clearly didn’t think he had said anything wrong, only scowling at his now soaking wet pant leg before turning to continue forward. He obviously thought Virgil knew this, that he wasn’t stupid enough to think he was actually wanted.

Well, at least Roman was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Even if Virgil apparently was that stupid.

They kept walking, Virgil ending up trailing a bit behind with slightly numb hands stuffed deep into his hoodie pockets. Roman managed to make it even farther ahead, humming some vaguely familiar tune as he watched the snowfall, and Virgil wondered if he should just let the Prince make the rest of the walk by himself, kind of wanting to just lay down and let the snow bury him.

The wind was picking up, and Virgil was clearly finding it more difficult to trek through the snow than Roman was. The Prince didn’t seem inclined to leave him behind though, slowing down and smiling patiently at the anxious side every few moments, letting him catch up on his own time.

He wondered why Roman didn’t just quicken his pace and leave him. It wasn’t like Virgil would go tell Patton just to get him in trouble. As much as it hurt knowing Roman wanted nothing to do with him, that someone had to make Roman spend time with him, it hurt worse to think that the Prince had just been faking it.

He’d thought...God, he’d actually thought they might be getting somewhere. That maybe, maybe Virgil’s feelings for the Prince weren’t as pointless as they’d once been.

The soft little smiles sent his way, the light touches on Virgil’s back or shoulder, the quiet jokes meant just for him, the way Roman’s eyes would linger for just a second…

He noticed it a second too late, caught up in his own head instead of paying careful attention to where he was stepping like he usually would, only pulled from his thoughts by another ear splitting crack as a piece of ice gave way right where he’d stepped down.

It was sudden and loud, and Virgil yelped when he stumbled and fell to the ground, hands losing feeling completely as they grabbed at the snow and his foot disappeared under the ice.

“Fuck- Roman!”

He heard Roman laugh, but it was almost impossible to make out over the howling of the wind and the pounding of his own heart. The water was so cold, (thank god he’d managed to stop himself before it went past his shin) like a million little knives dancing along his skin, paying no mind to what little protection his clothes offered.

“You’re fine,” Roman called, voice small and distant like he’d kept walking. Virgil didn’t dare look up, eyes on the ground beneath his hands. “It’s not deep, Virge, you can stand up.”

Virgil nodded even though he doubted Roman could see it, his voice refusing to cooperate. He squeezed numb hands into shaky fists, took a breath, and pushed himself up to stand on his free leg.

The next moment happened so fast, Virgil didn’t even register that more ice had broken under his weight until he felt himself falling, and suddenly the icy cold water was much higher than just his leg.

It felt like he’d been hit by a bus- a very, very cold bus- and Virgil gasped as all the ice below him gave way, the water rising up to his chest, wrapping around his body like a vice and yanking him forward without warning.

It was like hundreds of frozen hands were grabbing at him and tugging viciously, shoving him along with the water’s surprisingly violent current while trying to drag him down below the dark surface. Virgil barely had half a second to force his arms to move, frantically reaching for the nearest chunk of intact ice.

He couldn’t feel his fingers, and his hands were shaking so bad he almost didn’t make it, but he managed to get a grip on the edge just in time.

He gasped as he pulled himself to a sudden stop against the relentless current, weakening arms protesting the sudden strain, choking and coughing on the frigid water that managed to lap at the corners of his mouth.

“Princey!” he tried to scream, but he could barely hear himself over the roar of the river. The water hurt, the cold seeping into his skin and stealing his breath, and it took all of his quickly fleeting energy to keep holding on. “Roman!”

There was no response, at least not one that Virgil could hear, and he couldn’t bring himself to lift his head to see if help was coming, terrified that if he looked away from his hands he’d forget how to hold on.

He had to strain to keep his head above water, and he felt like there were boulders in his pockets weighing him down. He was left kicking desperately against the water, because it was definitely not shallow enough for him to stand.

Roman had said it was. Roman had laughed and kept walking and he’d...he hadn’t...he hadn’t left, had he? If he’d done this on purpose-

The dread and fear that came with the thought was almost more overwhelming than the thought of drowning, and Virgil squeezed his eyes shut as he tightened his hold, because Roman wouldn’t do that. He may not like Virgil, but he wasn’t cruel. He wouldn’t...he wouldn’t do this.

A grim voice in the back of his head told him Roman wouldn’t care, that Virgil would never be worth worrying about. Maybe it wasn’t the wind and rushing water blocking out the Prince’s voice...maybe he’d really just already walked away.

He choked back tears and put all his fading focus into staying above the water, the current’s pull growing stronger as his kicking became weaker and weaker. He couldn’t keep holding on. It was so cold and he was so tired-

“Virgil!”

Roman? It was so hard to tell for sure, everything distant and hazy compared to the roaring in his ears and his own too shallow breaths.

Oh god, he couldn’t hold on, he was slipping, he was going to fall-

“Virgil! Hold on, I’m coming!” Either that was Roman, or Virgil’s brain was being very cruel to him right before he died. The latter honestly seemed more likely. “Hold on, please just- I’m coming just hold on!”

He couldn’t feel his hands, barely able to comprehend anything around the all consuming pain settled around him like a blanket, leaving him shaking and numb, teeth chattering in his skull louder than a gunshot and he couldn’t do this- he couldn’t hold on he couldn’t-

“Virgil!”

Virgil didn’t even register what had happened, left only to wonder why the strain on his arms had suddenly been lessened for a single blissful second before realizing his frozen hands had slipped from the ice.

There wasn’t time to take another breath, the river seizing its opportunity to rise above his head and push him under the dark and freezing water, everything suddenly horribly silent.

#fanfiction #prinxiety #romantic prinxiety #virgil sanders #roman sanders #ts virgil #ts roman #thomas sanders #sanders sides #hurt/comfort #this fic is so self indulgent you guys #writing

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out-of-this-dimension · 3 years ago

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Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others. We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox. Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better. Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all. Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually. However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular. Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive. I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64. I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return. I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies.

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story. I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars. Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky. Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it. An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault. Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure. Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault. This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids. We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma. We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma. That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him. While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels. If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels. Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are. But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.

- Revise the scene with Tricky. I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done. And why is he suddenly king now? Did his parents die? He seems not affected by this at all? Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it. Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big. As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out. Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously. And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved. I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again. I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive. This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids. I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that. Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask? I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”. Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest? I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off? They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back. Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing. Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning? Or maybe back in Katina? And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force. It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival. Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen? I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission. I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals. Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies. While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well. While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray. Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”. As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion. Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there). But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this. He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids. Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo? Are they safe somewhere else? Where do they go? How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs. A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me. While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out. I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be. “But why, Amalia? Why are you disappointed by that?” 1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes. 2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy. And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures. Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later? Where were the Krazoa in all of this? Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers? It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much. Which I mean, sure. Family, kiddo game. I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant. As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins. Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations. Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast. Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened). I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it. I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria. Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault. Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible. It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it. Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion. Why? Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level. Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team. Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria. The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short. It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware. I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place? I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic? Also where is my revised Adventures music? Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t?

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign. I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints. I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign. Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels. Self-explanatory. Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points. I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers. It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good. Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly. I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it. And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault. But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot. For variety’s sake.

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind. So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future. I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading! Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s? Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

#star fox assault #starfox assault #super long #queue'd

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megs-mostly-past-random-fandoms · 4 years ago

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Spies Can’t Catch Feelings

Based on this request: I haven’t seen any requests for Peaky Blinders yet. Can I request a Tommy Shelby fic where the reader has been kind of like a spy for him and she kinda has feelings for him but also finds herself falling for Alfie too??

Here you are! *Familiar Characters are NOT mine!*

Fandom: Peaky Blinders

Warnings: Angst (no fluff here folks), unrequited feelings, mentions of smoking(it’s Peaky Blinders), mentions of spying and potential death, I think that’s it, but let me know if I missed something.

Pairings/Characters: Tommy Shelby x fem!reader(platonic-ish), Alfie Solomons x fem!reader (platonic-ish)

As soon as you were back home, you let out a sigh. You removed your coat and walked to the parlor, only to scream when you saw someone sitting there. "Bloody hell, Tommy!" you shouted when you realized it was none other than Thomas Shelby sitting in your parlor. "What are you doing here?" you snapped, causing him to raise a brow. He didn't like it when you used that tone, but he'd scared you half to death.

"You haven't rang. I was worried." You let out a snort of laughter. "You don't get worried, Thomas. You want your information. I told you before, when I have anything of note, I'll ring. Other than that, don't come sneaking into my house. Alfie Solomons hasn't lied to you so far. Not from what I've seen. I have free reign of that office. Everything appears legitimate as far as I can tell. At least where you and the Peaky Blinders are concerned."

Tommy rose gracefully from his seat and came over to you. In your personal space. You bit back the happy sigh that threatened to escape you. You couldn't let your feelings be known yet. Not while you were in the thick of things with Alfie. You were Tommy's spy and spies can't catch feelings. Except, you'd had feelings for Tommy long before he ever asked you to spy for him.

"Find whatever you can on him so we can bring you home, Y/N." He placed a hand on your shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. "I'm counting on you." With that, he left you home while your heart threatened to beat out of your chest. He had been so close. Close enough you could smell the gun powder and cigarette smoke on him. His lips had been right there and part of you wanted nothing more than to kiss him. You let yourself get lost in the fantasy for a bit before shaking your head and going about your personal business and going to bed. You had work the next day after all.

You didn't mind working for Alfie. He really was a great employer. Sure, he had a temper, but he never let it loose on you. In fact, he kept you safe from the leering eyes of the other men in his "bakery". He didn't talk often, but once he got going, he was a great person to talk to. He was so intelligent and even funny sometimes. And you had to be honest, sometimes, when he stared at you, his eyes bore into your soul and sent shivers down your spine. But mostly, you were happy being friendly with your current employer.

In fact, you were starting to have second thoughts about spying on him for Tommy. Your mind kept comparing the two of them while your heart bounced between them. You could easily admit that you had feelings for Tommy. You had for a while now. Alfie was a different story. You knew you felt something for him, but you didn't know what. Surely you couldn't be falling for Alfie too. Could you?

*the next day *

"You alright?" You nearly jumped out of your skin when you heard Alfie's voice. You hadn't realized you'd been zoned out. "Sorry. Yeah, I'm fine. Just…lost in thought I guess." You let your gaze meet his and he gave you the closest thing you'd get to a smile from him. "Go on home then. You've done more than enough for today. Get some rest, Miss Y/L/N." You laughed a bit.

"How many times must I ask you to call me Y/N?" He smirked and replied that until you called him Alfie, he'd continue calling you by your last name. You loved the easy banter between the two of you. It brought about a warmth in your chest and butterflies in your stomach that was different from the feeling you got around Tommy.

"Alright, I'll go. But I'll be back bright and early tomorrow. Goodnight, Alfie." You could feel Alfie's eyes on you as you grabbed your handbag and your coat. "Night, Y/N." You smiled and left. Part of you thought about sneaking back later, but the more rational part of you knew that, even if he were up to something nefarious, he wouldn't keep evidence in his business. Not where anyone could see anyway. Based on everything you'd seen and heard, he really wasn't out to get Tommy. So, you ignored that nagging voice and went about your business. As it would happen, that was the wrong thing to do.

Once again, Tommy was in your parlor when you arrived home. Only this time, he was glaring at you with such venom, you nearly shirked away. "What are you doing here, Thomas?" you asked as you removed your coat. Tommy stamped out his cigarette in the ashtray you kept out for him.

"You...lied to me." Your brows furrowed and you tilted your head to the side as you studied his face. Whatever he was talking about was obviously serious. At least to him. "What are you talking about?" Tommy stood, placed a hand in his pocket, and called out, "John. Bring 'im here." You glanced over your shoulder to see John nearly dragging a beat-up Arthur Shelby into the parlor.

"What the hell happened to you?" you asked, moving to help. A glare from John and the sound of Tommy clearing his throat stopped you. "What do you think happened, Y/N?" Tommy asked, "You're a smart girl. You can put two and two together." You whirled around to face him again. "You think Alfie did this?! Are you stupid? Alfie wouldn't do this. He's been honest with you from the beginning, Tommy. This was probably the Italians."

"I sent Arthur to check on your progress this afternoon. That was where it happened. This is Solomons' work. I just can't prove it." You felt your knees shaking as he took a step toward you. "Now, either you didn't know and I can let you off with a slap on the wrist for being stupid. Or you did know and I kill you now before you can betray us again. I just need to know which. So…which is it?"

"I-I don't know anything. I swear. Alfie…he didn't do this as far as I'm concerned." Tommy regarded you for a moment, trying to decided whether or not he believed you. After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke again, "You're protecting him. That's why you've given me nothing these past months. The question is why?" You swore your heart was going to beat right out of your chest.

"I'm not, Tommy. I swear. I haven't done anything to betray you or your family. If Alfie did this, he kept his plan close to the vest. There was never any sign that he would-" You weren't stupid. You knew Alfie would do something like that if provoked, but not out of the blue. But you couldn't tell Tommy that. He'd never believe you.

"You let us down," Tommy said in response, "Do you know what we do to those who betray us?" You narrowed your eyes and tried to fight back tears. You couldn't believe that the man you had been falling in love with was talking to you like this. "Don't you dare threaten me, Thomas Shelby. I did NOT betray you, but God knows I wish I had now!" Tommy's usually stoic mask twisted into an expression of rage.

"We're leaving. But know this, if I ever lay eyes on you again," he began, pulling a bullet out of his pocket, "I will put this bullet right in your heart." You clenched your fists at your sides. Your heart was breaking and you wanted to slap yourself at your own foolishness. How could ever think Tommy would love you? The man had no heart.

Taking a deep breath, you stared Tommy directly in his eyes and said, "And if I ever see you again, I'll put one between your eyes. Now, get out." Your entire body was shaking as the three men left your home. As soon as the door closed behind them, you sank to your knees on the plush carpet and let yourself cry. How had things gone so badly so suddenly? The only good thing was that it was over. Well, almost. Now, you needed to resign from Alfie's bakery before he found out everything.

The next morning, you were in Alfie's office first thing. He stared at you with those eyes and you almost couldn't speak. "Resignation?" he asked and you nodded. Once again, you were fighting back tears. You just couldn’t understand how you had been so stupid, falling in love with not one, but two notorious criminals. That was why spies couldn't catch feelings. It never worked out. You knew that. Too bad your heart hadn't. "Y-Yes. I think it's for the best." You turned to leave. When your hand was on the knob, Alfie spoke up again.

"This is about Tommy Shelby, ain't it? About the job he asked you to do?" You froze instantly as fear gripped you. You turned slowly to meet his gaze once more. "I beg your pardon?" Alfie sat back in his chair with a slight grunt. "Tommy Shelby sent you here." You let go of the knob and turned back to him with your head down.

"Yes. How long have you known?" Alfie leaned forward again, resting his elbows on his desk, but you could still feel his eyes on you. "Since Arthur Shelby came poking around yesterday." Your head shot up. "Did you do that to him?" Alfie sighed. "That, pet, was an unfortunate accident, weren't it? He stumbled into something he wasn't supposed to. If I hadn't done it, Sabini and his men would've killed him."

"I didn't tell them anything!" you suddenly cried before slapping your hands over your mouth. Alfie stared at you for a second then, he began laughing. "I know, pet. Not that you could've. There's nothing to tell, is there? I didn't betray Tommy. Neither did you." You scoffed and rolled your eyes. "Tell that to him. He thinks I did and that I'm protecting you. Threatened to shoot me." Alfie's brows drew together. "Now why would he think that?"

"Maybe because I'm falling in love with you and too stupid to hide it." Your eyes widened as Alfie took in your surprise admission. "I, uh, I-nevermind. I need to leave now before I embarrass myself further." With that, you threw open the door and ran from Alfie, cursing yourself all the way home. You didn't know what was going to happen next, but you were almost certain neither of the men you had feelings for were going to be a part of your life anymore.

(a/n: I hope you enjoy it!)

#peaky blinders #thomas shelby #tommy shelby #thomas shelby x reader #alfie solomons #alfie solomons x reader #tommy x reader #alfie x reader

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booperbeanv3 · 3 years ago

Note

IDK IF I COUNT AS A MUTUAL BUT PLEASE INFORM ME ABT THE AU YOU SPEAK OF,,,,, I’m running out of writing ideas (lie)

basically it's a teen-sitcom-style modern au. title is a work in progress but i've been thinking of writing out myself bc i just think it would be really funny

tankoubon kinda thing with a backing plot [when will the gays get together] but it's mostly just banter: the novel

ages are. idk yet but susato is probably early to mid teens and kazuma/ryuunosuke are late teens [they're deaged bc the 7 year age difference would mean either susato is super young or asoryuus are too old for funnie teen shit]

protag/pov chara is susato bc i think it would be funny. the story starts at some sorta out-of-context asoryuu bit and the whole "freeze. let's rewind to the ACTUAL beginning" thing happens

[exposition below]

a few weeks ago kazuma came back from school after the speech competition he was preparing for for a while. he is absolutely livid. sorta at everything, mostly himself bc he flubbered up the last bit and "Will Forever Bear The Shame On His Shoulders" [basically normal canon]

he starts ranting about how his "guaranteed win" is now no longer guaranteed ["oh that's a shame you're very clear and reasonable about your opinions" "ik susato but let me finish"] and that instead of him some... guy ended up getting the lead instead

this. didn't make him mad actually. he just felt really intense during the whole thing

like yeah he had a good speech and the way he spoke was pleasing to listen to. he has a smooth way of speaking that goes really nicely over the ear. but seriously? he would've totally done better if he didn't fuck up

so then he's like "there is something about him that's sticking out to me and it bothers me because he is [quite literally] SO boring. he bothers me so much and every time i pass by him i have this urge"

"to what?"

"to... i don't know. i think i hate him"

cue susato internal facepalm. "maybe talk to him about it"

"yeah i'll give him a piece of my mind"

and cue next day after school where he does the stupid "why do you speak like that" and ryuu even stupider goes "it's a hobby. speaking fast" and they instantly gel and kazuma never brings ryuunosuke up to susato again until he suddenly comes to their house

to kazuma it's cool bc ryuunosuke wants to see his sword or w/e hey look susato SOMEONE thinks i'm not clinging onto old hopes

but susato is like. "isn't this the guy you wanted to maim and kill two weeks ago"

back to the present. that's all i have down that's clear

i imagine that susato and rei would have regular talks about random things. school, home, other friends, kazuma. eventually this distant fruitiness will ping into susato's head and she'll bring it up to rei

this starts a tumbling snowball where as asoryuus develop more and susahaos keep chitter chattering kazuma and susato realise they gave the gay to each other

they always had suspicions about the other but never themselves

kazuma probably figures it out first though and after that susato is like "shit maybe i do like rei" and then is like "but i'm not a pretty bishounen charmer! how will we ever be more than friends" and pov Susato Goes Masc [ryuutarou]

i literally have no idea what to do with ryuutarou but i'll figure it out

other funny things to include:

ryuunosuke has archery club outside of school on weekends and falls asleep with the guard on hence why he wears it all the time

karuma still exists and is old as balls. idk if kazuma still carries her around all the time bc i don't think you can wave big swords around school hallways [regardless on its family heirloom status] so it's probably in his room somewhere perfectly cared for and regularly used for training

this is 70% of the reason why he has no friends [he is feared or made fun of this is a 50/50 divide]

susato is still a devout fan of herlock sholmes, legendary british detective who is still alive bc yuujin is. there'll probably be a chapter where he comes to [country] and she's super excited and gets her books signed while ryuunosuke casually goes "oh yeah we're good friends he stumbled upon us when asougi passed out" and yuujin is super super casual with sholmes and yeah her dad fucked herlock sholmes

"were all those business trips to the UK because you were fornicating with mr. sholmes answer me honestly"

lastly i imagine asoryuus and susahaos share the same link about super Super gay best friends [ryuu and rei] and their oblivious partners [kazuma and susato]

that's all i have planned. susato would be a wingwoman but honestly kazuma seems fiery enough to stumble into this whole thing by accident and make a whole plan on how to maximise ryuunosuke time bc "the intense feeling hasn't gone away and i need to look through things further" and oh. ohhhhh it's because- pov relationship blossoms.

susahaos are a little more blurry but i want to make them important too it is GUARANTEED [literally susato is the protagonist]

yeah

#dgs #bean stuff #bean answers

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buckyownsmylife · 4 years ago

Text

between us - final chapter

The one where Aaron hurts you, but he knows just how to heal you.

When Hotch comes home one day and takes out his frustrations on you, you’re sent spiraling into a depressive state that you were all too familiarized with. But as your boss and closest friend, he’s the only one who knows how to take care of you during a relapse. His efforts to fix the situation end up awakening a different side of him, a side that might just be precisely what you’ve been missing in a time like that.

for general warnings and author’s notes, please go to the fic’s masterlist. PLEASE CHECK THEM.

A/N for this chapter: we’ve reached the end, you guys! I don’t know if I’m ever writing for Hotch again, since I don’t really think anyone even read this series, but sharing it with the world was very important to me, since the whole story was so personal. If you do end up reading it and reaching the final chapter, I hope it resonated with you somehow. Thanks for reading!

Y/N’s P.O.V.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye and the well I had hid in for so long was nowhere to be found. Between Penelope’s ever-present banter, Rossi’s pasta nights and overall, the support of my friends - that made the BAU seem more like a family than a job - I was feeling better than I had felt in years.

But of course, most of my progress was to be thanked to a certain SSA Aaron Hotchner - and Jack had a big part in it, too. Both had welcomed me not only into their home, but into their lives, to a point where it was hard to remember what Friday nights used to look like away from them, without pizzas and Disney movies. I never went back to living in my apartment. Aaron never mentioned it, and apart from the two visits we had made right after I moved in with them, to gather more of my clothing I’d left behind, I hadn’t even been there in a while.

In fact, I had been gathering the courage to talk about it with my boyfriend for the last week or so. I knew we’d need to have this conversation eventually, and when the opportunity arose via us wrapping up a case that was supposed to last all weekend, leaving Jack with his aunt while we could have the house to ourselves, I knew it was now or never.

“I still can’t believe we were able to solve this before Sunday,” Aaron said, that cute tiny smile on his lips as he opened the door to his house.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It still feels weird not going to pick Jack up, though.” My boyfriend nodded, turning around to face him after he’d dropped his briefcase over the sofa.

“I know. But it’s already too late to wake him and Jessica up just to bring him home. We’ll get him in the morning.” I nodded, mostly because this was perfect for my intentions for the evening, but still, I missed the little guy.

“Aaron,” I started when he opened the fridge in search of something we could eat. He hummed to let me know he was listening, but despite the fact that I wanted to start talking while he was otherwise occupied with other stuff, just so I wouldn’t have to deal with the added weight of his impenetrable eyes on my figure, the words didn’t leave my mouth fast enough. Obviously, he took notice, which only made him immediately turn around to look at me, where I was sitting by the breakfast table, trying not to look incredibly guilty as I met his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” It was hard not to giggle at how quickly he went into dad mode at the prospect of any trouble. It helped to clear the air and release some of the tension I had accumulated in my body.

“Nothing’s wrong, silly. I just have something I need to talk to you about.” He nodded, opting to reheat some leftover pasta I had made a few nights before we left over trying to create something from scratch this late in the evening.

“Tell me.” He was stirring the pot where the pasta had been deposited as he waited for me to begin, but I knew his concentration was completely focused on me. I had to recognize how incredible he was, not only as a boyfriend, but also as a profiler. It was clear that he was aware of how much easier it would be for me to open up if he had the premise of another task in his mind, keeping his eyes away from me.

“My landlord called me this week.” And there it went. All pretense was suddenly dropped as his head immediately whipped up to stare at me with a frown on his handsome face, clenching the pot with much more strength than it was really necessary.. “My lease is about to end, I have to sign the renewal soon. I figured it’s the perfect time to talk about me returning to my apartment.”

At first, he didn’t say anything, simply stared back at me with unreadable eyes. And then we smelled something funny. “Oh my God, Aaron, stir the pot and lower the heat!” I directed after finally realising what was going on. I jumped out of the chair to help him, but by the time I had made my way around the counter and inside the kitchen, the situation had been diffused and the pasta was done. “Is it still edible?” I joked, peering up from his side to check if there was still some salvaged part of the food, but it looked mostly alright. Maybe only the bottom part was burnt.

He didn’t answer me, not even offering a chuckle to lighten up the mood. But he did plate up the now warm pasta, picking up both dishes and walking to the table without a single glance at me. It was clear he was deep in his thoughts, so I figured it’d be best to allow him time to get to any conclusions he might reach by himself, opting to simply follow him and take my place where he laid my plate, silently starting to eat while keeping an eye on him.

It was only after my second bite of food that he said something, and it wasn’t what I was expecting to hear.

“Aren’t you happy here?” The question caught me so by surprise that I dropped my fork against the plate, immediately flinching from the loud sound that echoed around the empty living room in the middle of the night.

“Of course I am, Aaron.” I didn’t understand how he could for even a minute doubt that. Didn’t he see how much better I was? How he had managed to help me get back to normal?

“Then why do you want to leave?” If the other question took me by surprise, this one completely astounded me. I couldn’t even offer an immediate answer, because I was in no way prepared for it.

Finally, I settled for, “I never said I wanted to leave, honey. It’s just that I figured it’s a natural evolution for our situation. I’m better now, and I have my own apartment. Why should I stay here?” It was like he had barely heard me, by the way he immediately countered my question with one of his own.

Aaron’s P.O.V.

“Well, do you want to?” She looked lost, her mouth opening a few times before she settled on what she wanted to say.

“Want to what?” She looked so confused, fidgeting with the edge of her skirt while she bit her lip. I had to lean down and deposit a quick kiss on her mouth, not only because I always wanted to kiss her, but also because I knew it helped her relax. When I saw her shoulders relax, I covered her hands with mine, pulling them up on the table so I could keep holding them more comfortably.

“Do you want to stay here?” I finally clarified, watching attentively for her reactions. At first, she looked surprised, her mouth falling open and her eyes widening at my question, but in seconds she gathered her thoughts and bit her lips, avoiding my eyes before nodding, a sheepish smile on her lips.

A huge grin immediately appeared on my face, as I watched her come to senses with what I had just asked. When she finally found enough courage in herself to look up at me again, I threw myself at her, capturing her lips in a deep, passionate kiss.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this happy. Watching Y/N come back to her natural state was already relieving, as it was to have her around all the time, especially when it came to help me take care of Jack, but to know that she wanted to be here indefinitely, that she had agreed to live with us? I was over the moon.

When we separated to catch our breaths, she was flushed again, and it was clear she was trying very hard to keep her eyes on mine.

“What?” I asked, certain I had a goofy smile on my face. She bit her lip once more, making me groan. “Stop that, pretty girl,” I teased, pulling her bottom lip from its confine. She rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. “Now tell, me, what is it that you want?”

The atmosphere of the room had changed, it was clear now. Whereas it had felt cold only a few minutes ago, when I thought she wanted to leave me, it felt absurdly hot out of nowhere, and I had half a mind to rip her dress off of her. So when she answered me with a soft, “You,” I knew exactly what she meant.

I immediately stood up from my chair, reaching out to help her leave hers too, but instead of walking hand in hand towards our room - it was our room, now, I reminded myself with a smile - I couldn’t deal with the prospect of spending another second separated from her skin, so I took her in my embrace, kissing her in celebration of the next steps in our relationship we were taking together, tonight.

We made out like two teenagers right there, in the middle of my living room, and when the fire that was growing inside of me rose up to my head, I found myself pulling on her dress and taking it off her body, not caring to notice where it ended up. The second her skin became available to me, I lost the last of the control I was still trying to keep, and pulled her by her ass to wrap her legs around me so I could at least take her to our bedroom before I had my way with her, like I’d been dreaming to do for so long.

Y/N’s P.O.V.

As soon as Aaron carefully laid me down on his bed I was already sitting up, reaching for his shirt. I’d been dreaming about this for so long, long before he ever showed any interest in me. Of course, back then it made me embarrassed - I never thought I’d be the girl with a crush on her boss - but after we came clear about our feelings, the only reason why I didn’t immediately jump his bones was because he wanted to wait for me to get better. And which person wouldn’t melt with that?

Only now that waiting time was over, I couldn’t get him undressed fast enough. It was nice to see him with a teasing smile, looking down at me with that mischievous glint in his eye as he realized just how much I wanted him, when in our day-to-day life outside this house he was always so serious.

“Someone’s eager,” he jested, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“I expected you to be too, or should I be worried about you not being attracted to me?” The question was made in all good humour, but Aaron clearly did not appreciate it. His smile immediately dropped, and before I could say anything to make it better, he was crawling up on the bed, making himself at home between my legs.

“Don’t even joke about this,” he whispered, dark eyes studying mine just like he did whenever we were alone before he captured my lips in a deep kiss that was equal parts possession and affection. “Do you feel this?” He pressed himself against me, and I could feel exactly what he was referring to. “I’m always so hard around you, sweetheart. You have no idea how difficult it has been to live with you and not be able to touch you like I’ve been dreaming of.”

His words made me whine, clutching his back so he’d lay more of his weight on me. For someone who was as quiet as Aaron usually was, I wasn’t expecting him to be so comfortable in sharing his desires with me, but it only made me appreciate it even more.

“Well, I’m here now, aren’t I? And you’re not doing a good job of taking advantage of this opportunity at all.” He smirked teasingly at me, getting out of the bed to take off his clothes until all he had on was his boxers. Then he was back between my legs, pressing his hardness against me with even more fervor as he devoured my lips once more.

Aaron’s P.O.V.

“I’ll show you how well I can take advantage of you, little girl.” She whined once more, making me chuckle as I slowly left her lips to continue pressing kisses on her jaw, until I was sucking on her pulse point, marking her as mine. I’d never been one for leaving bruises before, too worried about the consequences came the morning time, but in that moment I’d damn all the consequences just to have her, own her, make sure she’d never forget how it felt to be together like this for the first time.

I didn’t want to have to learn how to be without her again. She was a part of me now, a part of my life and I liked it better with her around. I liked me better with her around. So I made sure to make the most out of this opportunity, when I finally had her exactly where I wanted, to imprint her taste in my mouth, memorize the smell of her skin.

As I kissed every inch of skin my lips could meet, she danced underneath me, desperately trying to create some friction between us, in that wet heat I could hardly wait to encounter again. So I granted it to her, rubbing my clothed cock on her pussy as hard as I could while ripping off her bra, exposing her beautiful breasts to me for the first time.

My mouth watered at the sight, and I immediately enclosed one pebbled nipple with my lips, circling it with my tongue before sucking on it lightly. At her pleased gasp, accompanied by one of her hands, which she tangled in my hair, I doubled my efforts, sucking a bit harder, until I heard her moaning sweetly above me.

The sound went straight to my crotch, and I lifted myself off one breast to stare up at her, take in the beauty that was seeing her like this, slightly out of breath, her lips bruised from my nibbling.

“You’re perfect,” I let her know, and when she smiled I leaned down to give the other breast the same treatment. God, she tasted sweet. If her skin was this delicious, I could only imagine how delightful it would be to bury my face in between her thighs, drinking in her essence.

But I wouldn’t have to imagine it much longer. Slowly, determined to kiss each inch of skin along the way, I created a pathway of kisses and bruises down her stomach, appreciating the shiver that went up her spine at the feeling of my nose caressing her lower belly.

“You’re so beautiful, love,” I insisted in reminding her, knowing how hard it was for her to believe me - or anyone else - when it came to her qualities, but she needed to learn about her own beauty. I’d teach her to recognize it.

“Aaron, please…” Now, I’d heard a lot of sexy things in my life - most of them from her own lips, ever since we’d started dating - but nothing had ever come near the sound of her begging me to give her some release. It made me lose my infamous control, it turned me into that same man I’d become when I had her over my lap, writhing with the need to feel my touch on her skin.

“That’s not how you call me, is it, sweetheart?” I asked, looking up at her from my spot between her thighs, while I sensuously kissed the soft skin there. Her eyes sparkled with understanding, and while she tried to control the instinctual need to raise her hips to try and get me to touch her where she really needed, she finally said the words I’d been dying to hear again.

“Please, daddy, I need you.” That was all I needed to plunge into her waiting heat. Just like I’d anticipated, she tasted heavenly. Syrupy sweet and incredibly addicting. I wanted to bathe in her essence, drown in it.

It didn’t help my animalistic instincts that every swipe of my tongue over her little clit elicited the most musical moans from her perfect lips, which only served to further incentive me to bury my tongue as far as it could go inside of her weeping hole. My nose was the one massaging her nub while I struggled to get every drop of wetness I could collect, further aided by my head’s movements as I enthusiastically moved around, eating her out hungrily.

Y/N’s P.O.V.

Aaron was so starved for my cunt that all of a sudden, his hands came up to grab the cheeks of my ass, helping him better angle my body to how he desired to be able to fully appreciate his meal. It was dirty and sinful, but it was exactly what I needed after so many nights dreaming about his touch on me.

I was so wet I could feel it dripping from my lower lips, smearing my thighs and tarnishing the duvet underneath me. It didn’t seem like he minded, though. It was more for him to lap, and I had to grab the covers to try to keep my mind from going insane.

“Daddy…” I moaned, desperate for release as my whole body trembled underneath him. Aaron didn’t even look up, still too busy with my pussy, and I had to say it out loud so I could get his permission. “Wanna cum.”

That made him look up at me, but only his gaze went up to meet mine, his face remaining buried against me, never stopping his incessant licking. “Come on, love. Come for me.” As always, I followed his order without any amount of hesitation.

It wasn’t like I could control it, anyway. My body didn’t belong to me anymore, it was his, his to take, to care for, to love and to deal with, when necessary. And I trusted him to take good care of it.

So far, so good. He finally came up for air as my muscles relaxed, making me fall slack against the sweat-drenched mattress. Kissing his way up my body, he kissed me on the lips with fervor when our lips finally met, his long fingers immediately finding their way inside of my still sensitive cunt.

“Daddy…” I whined, feeling too raw yet to be able to deal with any part of him inside of me, but he was having none of it. Although he immediately retreated the finger, it was only to slap my pussy so I’d stop trying to close my legs around him, conceding all the access to my body once again.

As soon as my legs fell open, he was pushing it inside of me again, only this time there were two of them. Despite how wet I was, the thickness was already far more than I was used to, but the stretch felt wonderful, making me feel full like I couldn’t remember ever feeling before.

Over me, I heard Aaron curse, prompting me to open my eyes again (when had I even closed them?) only to find him focused where his fingers were carefully exploring. “You’re so tight, sweetheart. How long has it been since you’ve had sex?”

The question made me giggle, knowing he didn’t really need an answer. But the truth was, it’d been over a year. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had sex with my ex, and since it had been a while before we broke up, I knew Aaron would really need the time to prep me up to take him.

Just the memory of how his cock felt underneath me, straining in his trousers when he had me over his lap, had a new wave of wetness flooring from within me. My boyfriend sucked in a breath, clearly hypnotized by the way the added lubricant helped him ease his digits in.

Aaron’s P.O.V.

I was transfixed, completely in love with the way her pussy gripped my fingers every time I pulled them back only to push in again. Although it didn’t help my growing need to repeat the action with my cock, it did fill me with some kind of satisfaction by itself. I was the one doing this to her, I was the one giving her this pleasure. She was creaming around my fingers.

So I kept on my shallow thrusts until I could see it wasn’t enough for her. I saw it in the way she pushed back to meet my digits. I saw it in the whines she was emitting, which only served to make me even harder for her. Finally, she was the one who broke me out of my reverie, downright begging me, “Please, Aaron, please. I wanna cum around your cock. Please.”

Who could possibly deny such a request? I recognized that I was known for my control, but I still had needs, like any person. And right then, all I needed was her. So I pulled away, just enough so that I was able to pull my boxers down and wrap my hand around my member, trying to relieve some of the tension.

The vision before me more than helped. It was better than porn, certainly better than anything my mind could create, seeing Y/N like that, completely naked, heaving and wet because of me.

I knew birth control wasn’t a concern, so I just leaned over her again, rubbing the head of my cock on her clit and appreciating the desperate moan that resonated around the room before I dragged it down and pushed in.

Immediately, the feeling of tightness and warmth made me gasp, and I almost lost my balance and fell on top of her body, but her own hands flew up to hold me by my hips, freezing me in place. She didn’t say anything, but from her whimper, it was clear that she was in pain, so as much as I was trembling with the urge to push all the way inside of her, I breathed deeply and rested my forehead on hers.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re okay. I know it hurts, I’m going slowly, okay? Give you time to get used to it.” She nodded, eyes squeezed shut while I delivered quick kisses all over her face. I tried to pull back slightly and push in only a little bit further, and she seemed to adjust to that, her hands coming around my torso to hug me to her.

“Slowly,” she repeated in a whisper, still not opening her eyes.

“Slowly,” I agreed, kissing her temple and keeping up with the ritual of sliding back and pushing in again, until I was able to bottom out. “Fuck, daddy!” The whiny tone of her voice only added to my arousal, and I exchanged my kisses for little bites all over her neck.

“Does it feel good, baby? Can I move?” I asked, fascinated by the taste of her sweat on my tongue. I wanted to lap it up, just like I had done to her wetness minutes before, but the ache in my groin reminded me there were more pressing urges to be fulfilled now.

“Yes, Yes! Please, move!” That was all I was waiting for to start thrusting in and out of her. It was an incredible feeling. It’d been so long since I’d felt this connected to someone. It felt amazing. She felt amazing. Such a strong feeling of belonging, of true love coursed through my body that all I wanted to do was to kiss the breathing air out of her lungs.

Y/N’s P.O.V.

I held on Aaron’s body like it was my lifeboat, and in many ways, I supposed he was precisely that. He’d been patient when I needed, firm when I desired it and now he was filling me in ways I’d never felt before.

It was such an overwhelming feeling, to be this connected to someone. The thought prompted me to finally open my eyes, only to find his already fixed on mine. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, and I felt my heart grow twice its size before I pulled him to meet my lips again.

“So are you,” I mumbled against his mouth, and he chuckled breathlessly, still fucking me deeply against the mattress, prompting me to run my nails over his back, making him curse. Believe me, there was nothing hotter than hearing Aaron Hotcher curse while being balls deep into you.

“I don’t ever want to leave you,” he confessed, and I knew he was referring to the act we were currently partaking in, but I couldn’t help but to run my fingers through his hair, softly responding, “Then don’t.”

The mood suddenly changed, and so did his thrusts. They became slower, but more meaningful, somehow. His forehead fell to mine, his lips but an inch from mine when he answered, “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I won’t.”

I knew we’d still have so much to overcome, so much to fight for, but the fact was that we’d be doing it together. I knew that now, as I felt him move inside of me, bringing me to new heights of pleasure, his hands finding mine and holding them by my side, in bed. This, right here, wouldn’t solve everything, but it brought me a sense of belonging I’d never been able to experience before.

And at the end of the day, I knew that all I wanted was to belong to Aaron for the rest of my life.

#aaron hotchner smut #smut #aaron hotchner #my series #criminal minds fics #criminal minds fan fiction #criminal minds smut #aaron hotchner reader #aaron hotchner reader insert #aaron hotchner x reader #hotch x reader #hotch smut

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janeykath318 · 4 years ago

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The Gardener Next Door

Darcy felt like she’d finally made it: finished her PhD and found a great job that allowed her to upgrade from her tiny apartment to her very own house in the suburbs. It needed a little work, but it had charm and personality and Darcy took several months making it her own. The neighborhood she lives in was mostly elderly people or young newlywed couples and the people were generally very friendly. Sweet Mrs. Messer brought her over baked goods regularly and shared the local gossip while Old Mrs. Richards brought her puppy over for regular visits. Before she’d lived there six months, she knew almost everyone on the block except for her next door neighbor on the left, who didn’t appear to be the sociable type.

Even Mrs. Messer hadn’t been able to find out much information, other than his name was something Grant and he liked to garden and preferred to be left alone.

“He must be one of those grumpy old hermit types,” Mrs. Messer sighed. “Never answered the door when I went to bring him a welcome to the neighborhood pie. I wonder what happened to the poor man to make him so wary of people.”

“I don’t know, but maybe you could try leaving some on his front porch with a friendly note. Once he’s discovered the glory of your chocolate chip cookies, he might just loosen up a little.” Darcy suggested.

This cheered up Mrs. Messer and she scurried off to start baking.

Mysterious Neighbor Dude clearly preferred a motorcycle as his form of transportation, but he always pulled right into the garage, so she was never able to get a glimpse of him without his helmet.

As spring went on, Darcy started spending more time outside in her cozy lounge chair, from which she started noticing her neighbor working outdoors. Even from the distance she could see by the way he moved, he was still in the prime of life and he appeared to be a workout fiend, judging by the size of his shoulders and arms.

He wore a big floppy straw hat that kept the sun off, which was probably a good thing because he was working in his garden almost nonstop on sunny days. It was kind of fascinating watching the progression from bare dirt to tiny plants. So far, their only interaction was a friendly wave when he caught her staring and Darcy was dying for more, but he’d never approached her and she didn’t want to invade his privacy.

But then she came home one day to find a big basket of lettuce and radishes on her front porch.

There was a note with them:

“Sharing some lettuce with you. It makes delicious salads. Have a nice day!”

The note was not signed and Darcy squinted at it for quite awhile like it would suddenly start talking and reveal its author, but alas, no such luck.

The lettuce did make excellent salads and she thought about her hunky neighbor with every bite.

Mrs. Messer came over very excitedly to report that the cookies had been taken and she too had been given a basket of lettuce.

“Looks like you were right, Darcy. The man just needed a little kindness. I wonder if he likes lemon bars…..”

As the weeks went by, the gifts of veggies continued, varying as different things came into season. Peppers, carrots, tomatoes, and green beans all arrived steadily and were either quickly eaten or given to Darcy’s vegetarian co-worker.

Darcy started replying to his notes on the fifth basket and soon they had a funny banter going back and forth, filled with vegetable puns.

“Lettuce be friends?” She wrote on the note left in the empty basket which had previously held plump red tomatoes and would be supplying her with BLTs for a long time.

“Yes, peas!” he’d replied on the next basket, which did contain the mentioned vegetable.

“Why are you so cute and unreachable?” Darcy murmured to herself, stashing the note away with a smile.

She laid out sunbathing in her favorite bathing suit the next day and since there was no fence between their backyards, the hot neighbor dude got a nice view. This time it was Darcy who caught him staring and waved happily, pretty sure he was blushing. Ugh. He was just too adorable. She wanted to March over there and plant one on him, pun slightly intended. He briefly took off his hat to wipe sweat off of his face and she caught a glimpse of dark hair and beard. Dang it, that was a GOOD look!!

The notes and vegetable puns continued, but now they were accompanied by cute sketches of cartoon vegetables representing the various neighbors. Darcy absolutely loved it and it proved her suspicions that the so-called hermit was much more observant than he seemed.

“So you’re an artist as well as a champion gardener? Is there anything you can’t do?” She wrote on the next note.

“Plenty,” he replied back. “I sure can’t bake and I can’t seem to be able to remember how to speak when my pretty neighbor is around.”

Darcy was floored, but thrilled, and wrote and rewrote seven replies before she finally figured out how to word her response.

“Here I was thinking you didn’t want to talk to me. Guess we’re both disasters at communicating.”

The response to this rang Darcy’s doorbell the very next evening and she opened it to see her neighbor, up close and personal, looking all kinds of shy and adorable and holding out a bouquet of gorgeous flowers that she knew came from his yard.

“Aww, how sweet!” She exclaimed, accepting the flowers eagerly. “They’re beautiful. Nice to finally meet you……….”

Her voice trailed off as she recognized the gorgeous and famous face in front of her.

“Steve,” he finished quietly, almost apologetically. “I’m sorry for the secrecy. I’ve been hiding out living the retired life and trying my hand at new hobbies.”

He looked even more nervous now, probably thinking she was going to either throw him out or go yelling to the neighbors.

“Please, come in,” she told him, heart pounding. “I’m Darcy Lewis, astrophysicist and former Avengers wrangler. I did NOT recognize you from across the yard with the dye job. It’s a good look, though. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

“Thanks,” Steve sighed, relaxing a touch. “I think I remember seeing you yelling at Tony a few times. It was pretty neat, the way you made him cower.”

“I learned early on, Tony needed a firm hand or he would never eat or sleep and bad things happened,” Darcy recalled, with a pang of sadness. “You guys saved the world,” she added. “I think you’ve more than earned your privacy and a peaceful retirement.”

Steve cracked a crooked smile. “That’s very gracious of you. Some days, it’s a pretty big struggle for me to believe that, thinking about everyone we lost. Gardening’s been keeping me sane.”

“And you’re doing a fabulous job with it. I’ve never had such perfect tomatoes,” Darcy told him with a smile.

“I was pretty proud of them,” Steve admitted, then he grew serious again and looked at her very earnestly with those gorgeous blue eyes.

“Darcy, do you still want to…”

“Yes,” Darcy interrupted. “Heck yes. I like you, Steve. I didn’t really know you apart from Captain America before and I’m finding regular Steve to be more irresistible than Mrs. Messer’s lemon bars.”

Steve chuckled and started to turn pink, which was even cuter seen close up.

“Given how amazing those are, that’s high praise,” he remarked, with a twinkle in his eye. “Looks like I’ve got a lot of missed opportunities to make up for.”

They shared another long look and Steve moved into her personal space with intent-to-kiss written all over his face.

Darcy was very much down for that and nodded eagerly, wrapping her arms around him. The pent up feelings resulted in a pretty intense kiss, which left her weak in the knees and practically hanging onto Steve for dear life.

“Well that was worth it,” she whispered, when she’d caught her breath. “I’m so glad you didn’t actually go to the moon. There’s been rumors.”

Steve full on laughed at that, a joyous sight which she’d never witnessed before, but was very glad to finally see. His eyes crinkled, his face lit up and he looked so adorably cute, her heart turned into a puddle of goo.

“Don’t know where they came up with that one,” he remarked, shaking his head in amusement. “But I have no intentions of going to the moon. I’d rather stay here with you.”

“Good, because I need some more of those green beans, ASAP,” Darcy replied mischievously, barely refraining from making an eggplant joke. She didn’t want to be TOO forward.

“How about you come over and I can give you the grand tour?” Steve suggested.

“Yes, peas.” She responded, making him laugh again.

Before long, the neighbors were gossiping again, this time over the shocking sight of “Mr. Grant” making out with Dr. Lewis right in his backyard.

“I knew it!” Old Mrs. Richards chuckled, petting her dog gleefully.

“I’ll volunteer to make their wedding cake!” Exclaimed Mrs. Messer.

#shieldshock #Darcy Lewis #Steve Rogers #retired! Steve #fluff

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felidaefighter · 3 years ago

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Our Metaphorical Get-Along Sweater

In which Wilbur thinks of Ranboo as an arch-nemesis while Ranboo is just There Vibing and also, Phil has adopted Ranboo, making for two very different siblings and a very interesting relationship

[Fluff, comedy, fix-it fic, some light angst that is immediately softened, work in progress; every chapter will swap POV]

Chapter 3: How Not To Babysit

Wilbur and Phil were outside on the porch, enjoying the fresh air, when Ranboo had stopped by to say hello as he was heading to the portal. “Tommy and Tubbo and I are going to try to fix up Tommy’s old skyway rail today,” he was explaining to Phil. “Ohhh I can’t imagine that ending without at least a few broken bones.” Ranboo nodded. “That’s why I’m bringing a bunch of gapples.” Wilbur raised an eyebrow at the mention-- it had been ages since he’d seen the thing, it was probably way more rundown than even he remembered it. “That sounds like it’ll be funny to watch,” He said. “I’d like to see how many times Tommy can fall off before he realizes he actually has to do work to fix it up and quits.”

Ranboo looked towards Wilbur. “I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s alright for you to join us if you want,” he offered, much to Wilbur’s surprise. Internally, he thought that was extremely suspicious. A large part of him believed it was likely Ranboo was just trying to butter him up, get on his good side because that’s what he did, wasn’t it? Got on everyone’s good side, a neutral, conniving-- “Really? I--” Wilbur interrupted his own thoughts and looked between Phil and Ranboo and back again in quick form, thinking. “Sure! I don’t have much of anything else planned for the day, it might be interesting to see how the three of you get on.”

“Oh, okay, great!” Said Ranboo, sounding as surprised as Wilbur was at the man’s answer. “You two have fun now,” Phil said with a sly, knowing smile, and Wilbur rolled his eyes. He knew that Phil was thinking Wilbur would actually wind up enjoying himself, but Wilbur knew that whatever fun he might’ve had catching up with Tommy and Tubbo would be ruined by Ranboo’s presence. There was no way the spineless hybrid would be able to hold his own against the banter that he and the two best friends could get into. Honestly, he didn’t know how Tommy or Tubbo could stand him; he was just that sure that Ranboo would infringe upon their chaotic natures just by being his boring, neutral self.

Ranboo tried to make conversation on the way there, of course, but Wilbur answered as curtly as he could without being outright rude. In all honesty, he was still fuming from the other day when Ranboo had told him he wasn’t a bad person. First of all, it wasn’t true. He was a bad person. Everyone knew it. (He tried not to focus on the fact that he was sounding more and more like he was trying to convince himself, as if it wasn’t true.) Second of all-- didn’t that just prove that Ranboo was spineless and would say whatever he needed to get on a person’s good side? Wilbur didn’t trust Ranboo. Wilbur didn’t want to trust Ranboo. And fine, maybe he was being stubborn-- so what, Rational Thoughts In His Head That Took On The Voice Of Phil-- nothing wrong with being stubborn when it meant being the only person around who could actually resist Ranboo’s weird, enderman Bewitching Powers.

Speaking of. “Ayyyy Ranboo!” A familiar voice called as they approached the hillside house that was almost always where people met up with Tommy-- who, upon seeing Wilbur too, narrowed his eyes. “Wilbur. You aren’t going to get in our way are you? We don’t need you bossing us around,” Tommy said pointedly, while Ranboo greeted Tubbo. Tubbo. Wilbur hadn’t really seen Tubbo since-- Oh. That was-- ohhhhh. Wilbur swallowed a bit guiltily. He. He definitely had some apologizing to do there, huh? “Oi, pay attention to me when I’m talking to you, dickhead!” Tommy snapped Wilbur out of his thoughts, who, still distracted, muttered “Sorry, I just-- got caught up thinking.” There was a look of confusion on Tommy’s face at the soft, genuine tone, so Wilbur remembered his manners. “Prick,” He added, which righted things as Tommy instantly scowled.

“Tubbo!” Wilbur called with a grin, who froze in a mirror of Wilbur just a few seconds ago. “It’s been a while man-- how’ve you been?” Tubbo looked rather taken aback. “I’ve been-- I’ve been alright, I guess. Just around, y’know. Building things here and there.” It was, for all its honesty, a guarded answer. Not that Wilbur blamed Tubbo. Of course he couldn’t. “Yeah, I uh, I wanted to say I’m sorry, man,” Wilbur blurted out before he could think better of it. Everyone stood around awkwardly and uncomfortably. “It’s uh, it’s alright, I forgive you,” Tubbo replied, too bewildered to really put thought into it. He was probably just saying that because he felt like he had to, then. “You don’t have to forgive me,” Wilbur promised, but Tubbo just shrugged. “I do forgive you. Doesn’t mean I trust you.” Well. There it was. Of course.

“AN-Y-WAYS!” Tommy shouted, breaking the strange moment (though not without shooting Wilbur a dirty look). “Did everybody bring tools and whatnot? Pickaxes, etcetera? Although I suppose we’ll need rails--” Tommy was cut off by Ranboo. Of course Ranboo would be the one to cut Tommy of all people off. And nobody would think anything of it because why would they? It was Ranboo. Wilbur was sulking a bit, admittedly. He’d missed hanging out with the two boys and there was a deep ache in his chest. No trust. No easy conversations. No room on the bench for more than three people. “For in case you fall off,” Ranboo was explaining to Tommy while shoving a handful of gapples at him. “Oh my GOD I don’t want your pity gapples man,” Tommy growled while taking them anyway.

“Thankyouthough-- anyway-- So I was thinking right, like the skyway is cool and all but all of these buildings are old y’know? Nothing around the prime path is new anymore, nobody comes here except me! So I was thinking-- Tubbo you have a pickaxe on you yeah?” Tubbo nodded, then slid his rather hefty backpack off one shoulder to open the top of. “I also have TNT,” He explained, holding up a stick, which earned a nervous and confused chuckle from Ranboo, a startled “whoah!” from Wilbur, and an “Oh my god why do you have TNT-- I mean that works too though I guess!” from Tommy. Tubbo looked extremely offended that anybody would question the sensibility of having TNT on hand. “Well, y’know, like, in case we need to do any demolition work, it’s a lot faster than having to mine things all by hand.”

Wilbur saw the TNT and tried desperately, for everyone else’s sake if not his own, to shove his associations with it deep, deep down in his brain where it wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Ah, Tubbo, that’s…” Wilbur started nervously, avoiding eye contact, but he didn’t miss the way Ranboo’s face lit up with recognition and understanding. “Maybe don’t get the TNT out too much around Wilbur,” Ranboo said in a hushed tone to Tubbo, who mumbled “Oh god! Oh, yeah, good point, yeah,” and put it away. It just had to be Ranboo that picked it up and said something, huh. That was nothing if not salt in a gaping wound. Wilbur was certain Tommy would’ve said something if the hybrid had waited just a few seconds more.

Right. No. He was supposed to be polite, he wanted to be on good terms with Tommy and Tubbo; he was grateful that Ranboo had stepped in. Disgusted with himself for reasons that made him miserable to think about sifting through, Wilbur swallowed pride that tasted like bile and nodded silently at Ranboo after catching his eye. Ranboo nodded back. Well, he didn’t much like it, but Wilbur supposed he could put aside his feelings at least for a day. Poorly-concealed hostility towards the hybrid was clearly not earning him any points in Tommy’s good book, and presumably not Tubbo’s as well; though it was genuinely hard to gauge Tubbo’s reaction considering how the years the man had spent as a spy had given him practice in having a good poker face.

“I’m gonna give this whole place a shout,” Tommy muttered, typing something into his communicator that Wilbur knew would ping his own in just a second, “If anybody wants to stop me they’re gonna have to do it fast.” Looking at Tommy then-- in his favorite red-and-white shirt, on the prime path, by his stupid dirt hut, side by side with Tubbo and ready to cause mischief-- something unfurled from his un-undead heart that Wilbur wasn’t quite certain had been there anymore. That was his Tommy, alright. Wilbur tried out of habit to hide the fond smile that was threatening to creep across his face, but even then he couldn’t hide the way his resting scowl softened. “Tommy, Tubbo-- I missed this. I missed hanging out with you guys,” Wilbur confessed, and hey, it’s not like he was ignoring Ranboo if he’d never done any hanging out with him previously that he could miss. “I know, Tommy-- I know we hung out the other day, but that was-- that was different. This is nice.”

“Yeah I missed this too!” Tubbo said genuinely, while Tommy tried to avoid emotions and rolled his eyes. “Honestly, it’s been ages since we’ve all hung out like this. How long has it been?” Tubbo wondered out loud. Tommy looked like he was thinking, and opened his mouth to speak. “Actually that reminds me--” He said, and Wilbur almost thought he was gonna say something nice to him for once. Almost. “Ranboo, I heard a word the other day, let me type it to you, can you tell me what it means?” Ranboo looked entirely puzzled, and not just because of the fact that he was suddenly being included in the conversation again. “Huh? Sure, okay.” He squinted at the no-doubt misspelled word Tommy had just messaged him. “What a syndicate is? Oh, I think it’s, like, a book club,” Ranboo said. Tommy spoke in a quick, pleasantly-lilted voice before going back to his usual gravelly shouting. “Thank you Ranboo that’s very helpful because Wilbur actually told me it was a government and I’m ah, far more inclined to believe you at the moment.” He turned aside. “Tubbo!” He barked out.

Wilbur stared directly at Ranboo (trying so hard not to make eye contact, he was respectful of boundaries), thinly veiled outrage on his face. And Ranboo, Ranboo smirked at him knowingly. Oh. So he knew knew. Wait. He knew?!? Technoblade had approved him for The Syndicate? Not to mention-- not to mention Wilbur’s feathers were all ruffled because despite him thinking of Tommy as an annoying brat most of the time, he couldn’t help but feel a little dejected at the fact that Tommy would rather listen to Ranboo’s explanation than his own. Had the charm of having an older brother really worn off that much for Tommy? Was he really stuck with Ranboo as his only younger brother? Sure, he’d always joked about getting rid of the little gremlin but-- Why like this?

Wilbur was so busy bemoaning his own self-made prediacement that he didn’t notice the trio snickering and sneaking off until it was almost too late. He zoned back in and narrowed his eyes at the three of them, who all blinked innocently at him. “What were you three talking about just now?” Wilbur asked, curiosity in his voice intermingling with suspicion. “Oh, nothing,” Ranboo said through a grin. “Don’t worry about it Big Man,” Tubbo agreed. Tommy just looked at Wilbur smugly. Wilbur narrowed his eyes again with a huff. “Don’t you three give me that-- what are you all up to?” Tommy looked upwards, thinking and tapping his chin before looking back at Wilbur. “Frankly, uhhh-- none of your business!” He said in a hoity-toity tone. Wilbur released a long-suffering sigh. “Children, all of you,” He muttered. “Children!” At least he didn’t have to worry about memory fooling him in regards to their ages; the one thing about Ranboo Wilbur was grateful for was the explanation about the passage of time.

For now at least though, Wilbur was content to just observe. He had been interested in figuring out how Ranboo fit into the group, to be fair; now was his opportunity. He watched as Tommy and Tubbo bickered and Ranboo offered compromises; he watched as Tommy and Ranboo quarrelled and Tubbo attempted to mediate. He watched as Tubbo and Ranboo bickered and Tommy egged them on. Somehow, instead of meaning they didn’t work together, this meant that they were in perfect sync about everything, and moved nearly flawlessly together as a unit without needing too much direction or getting in one another’s way. They were clearly not beyond getting sidetracked though, as right now they were meandering about with the hours ticking away, putting all their energy into “clearing up” abandoned and unused buildings and rubble with whatever tools they had on them at the moment.

“Anyways, what is it exactly we’re doing here Tommy?” Wilbur asked, growing restless. “All you’ve been doing is running around placing TNT on abandoned buildings and tearing them down. I thought we were meant to be working on the skyway.” He’d genuinely been hoping to see the old thing, ugly as it was. To say nothing about all the TNT. “Oh of course you’re still thinking about the skyway,” Tommy mocked, eyes rolling, voice gravelly. “What d’you MEAN ‘of course you’re still thinking about the skyway’ you were the one who said that’s what we were working on!” Wilbur refuted, aghast. “Yes but I changed my mind!” Tommy huffed, and then for good measure, added “Duh!”

The two of them began aggressively and gleefully bickering, mocking, and name-calling; Wilbur calling Tommy an annoying child and Tommy in turn calling Wilbur a dirty old man-- until Tommy gave up with an exasperated growl and Wilbur gave up with a disgusted scoff, and wordlessly Tommy handed Wilbur a pickaxe to help terraform the area; and Wilbur, of course, silently started mining. The four of them got a decent amount of work done together, chatting idly and pleasantly, until all of the sudden a golden figure came sprinting down the stairs, out of breath. “Aw geez I came here as fast as I could I hope I’m not late-- you better not be taking down any of my builds!” The man said as he reached the group, taking a moment to catch his breath. “Oh hey Foolish what’s up!” Ranboo greeted.

For a solid second, Wilbur was almost impressed, thinking Ranboo was just being utterly and blatantly rude to this strange man. But Tubbo then greeted him in kind and Wilbur realized that no, that was just his actual name. “Hey guys,” The man apparently called Foolish greeted. “Tommy-- Tommy, please tell me you didn’t take down any of my buildings,” He said, distraught. Tommy looked at him and shrugged. “We’ve just been taking down abandoned buildings along the Prime Path here, so unless one of them was yours--”

Foolish cut Tommy off. “Ohthankgod. No, nope, none of those were mine. I am glad you took down that Christmas building actually it was kinda out of season,” he said, perpetual grin on his face, gesturing wildly as he spoke. Tommy looked at Foolish for a second, calculating, before a familiar-looking lightbulb went off in his head. “You’re going to help us take these buildings down,” Tommy asserted. “What?” Foolish asked, blinking.

“You’re going to help us take these buildings down,” Tommy said again in the same tone, with his eyebrows raised in a “watch this” expression. Foolish stared at him for a moment and then shrugged. “Sure! I’m usually a builder, I don’t get to take down stuff a lot. I wouldn’t mind helping.” Tommy nodded curtly, sharing a glance with Tubbo and Ranboo, who were looking at him with fond exasperation. “Gets ‘em every time,” Tommy said to himself smugly, and Foolish looked at him. “Huh? What was that?” Foolish said, his grin giving away the fact that he did in fact hear what Tommy had said and was just going along with it all for fun. “I said get mining Totem Boy,” Tommy said, and Foolish giggled before unearthing his pickaxe to start to help. He glanced at Wilbur curiously for a moment before striking up a conversation.

“You know, I don’t think we’ve ever officially met,” He said, pausing his pickaxe swing to extend a hand, “I’m Foolish Gamers! And I take it you’re Wilbur.” Wilbur nodded, and shook Foolish’s hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you!” Foolish continued, which definitely wasn’t a sentence that invoked any sort of dread in him, nope. “I’m afraid I can’t say the same about you,” Wilbur said apologetically. Although he was a bit of an odd one in whatever species he was, that didn’t necessarily mean anything. “I do a lot of big fancy buildings and stuff. Contract work, y’know. I actually built this huge mansion for Ranboo and-- Oh wait!” Foolish stared down Wilbur for a second, which was admittedly very unnerving with the way the man’s eyes were pure emeralds.

“You’re Philza’s kid right?” Foolish asked, and Wilbur narrowed his eyes, now entirely unsure of where this conversation was going. “And Ranboo is too right?” Ranboo, hearing his name, hopped into the conversation and nodded. “Oooh wait, so that means you guys are both siblings then? Really? Oh wow,” Foolish said, curious. They both hummed in acknowledgement, though Wilbur’s admittedly was more of a grumble. “I’m the adopted one, by the way,” Ranboo said, which wasn’t funny. “I never could’ve guessed,” Foolish said, which actually also wasn’t funny. “Very funny. Humor. Good job,” Wilbur deadpanned at them both, who were both grinning far too proudly for their stupid jokes. “Thank you, thank you,” Ranboo said, despite certainly being aware that it wasn’t a compliment.

“No but like to be fair you don’t have wings and Ranboo’s only half enderman so like it could go either way, technically,” Foolish was saying, and Wilbur started muttering under his breath about stupid enderman and weird totem men comparing him to his dumb adoptive sibling as if he wasn’t clearly the one more like Phil, and Ranboo stage-whispered to Foolish “I think that might be a bit of a sore spot for him,” to which Foolish replied also in a stage-whisper “Ooh you’re right you’re right, I can kinda see that now, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Wilbur rolled his eyes at those two, Foolish starting to mine again and Ranboo disappearing to go be closer to Tubbo again. Somehow everyone he managed to find himself hanging around with fit the description of “annoying brat who thinks they’re clever and funny”, huh. Except Tubbo, of course, Tubbo was an angel compared to the rest of them even if he was just as prone to chaos-- which Tubbo proved at that exact moment he thought it, shouting “Look out below!” which was accompanied by a high-pitched, startled Tommy-scream. Wilbur just barely managed to dodge the TNT that had been dropped from the now-dilapidated roof before it exploded. He looked up to where it had dropped from, seeing Ranboo, Tubbo, and Tommy at the top, the former two grinning somewhat manically. “Oops,” Ranboo and Tubbo both called down apologetically, while Tommy went off on a tirade just for the fun of it. These kids-- Wilbur looked up at the sun to gauge the time. Exactly how much longer was this going to go on for?

---

“I will say, Ranboo,” Wilbur said with a small smirk as they were striding along home, “I do appreciate the level of chaos you seem to conjure when you’re around Tubbo. You described yourself as so neutral to me I guess I didn’t factor in that morality and politics have nothing to do with teenage shenanigans.” Ranboo looked to Wilbur, surprise written on his face, but he offered a small smile to the older man. “Mhm! Oh, yeah, absolutely. I usually try to be the responsible one since Tommy and Tubbo have no self-control--” The hybrid mumbled “Seriously they have no self-control” before continuing-- “But when someone else like Phil or you is around to do that instead?” Ranboo grinned mischievously. “Oh man,” he concluded.

“Well, don’t expect me to babysit all the time,” Wilbur said with a small scoff, “I do have my own things to be doing.” Ranboo shot Wilbur an offended look. “Babysit? I don’t--” Ranboo sighed and shook his head. “You don’t have to worry about that, Wilbur. We can get up to plenty on our own. Probably more, actually,” He added with a slightly mischievous tone. Wilbur sighed. “It’s not gonna be my fault if you three get yourselves killed,” he told Ranboo, fully meaning it. “Ehhhhh we’re not gonna get killed,” Ranboo said with a dismissive handwave. “I got Tubbo and Tommy full maxed-out enchantment netherite, and we all have totems. Plus we’re not that reckless. I think.” Wilbur groaned. These kids were going to be the second death of him. Even if they weren’t technically his responsibility. Luckily, he didn’t have to think about that too much as they trekked the rest of the way through the thick snow in silence.

“So, did you two have fun on your day out today?” Phil asked as the two of them walked in the door. “It was horrible,” Wilbur deadpanned, “Terrible. They are all chaotic gremlin children.” Phil grinned at Wilbur. “Nahhh. Not Ranboo, surely. He’s responsible, right Ranboo?” Ranboo smiled innocently at Phil. “Mhm!” He said. “Even Ranboo,” Wilbur continued on in his deadpan as if Ranboo hadn’t spoken. “You wouldn’t believe some of the awful things he said to me today. It was genuinely horrific, actually.” Phil shot Wilbur a completely bemused expression. “That’s not true!” Ranboo protested. “Philllll Wilbur is slandering meeeee!” He said with pseudo-pout. Wilbur scoffed. “As if! It’s not ‘slander’ if it’s true! The lot of you just wouldn’t shut up about--” Phil cut him off with a barked-out cackle. “I’m glad you two had fun,” he said with a knowing smile. Wilbur grumbled and Ranboo thanked Phil, before heading back to his own house.

As much as Wilbur hated to admit it, he did have fun, though. It was… strangely nice, getting to see Tommy and Tubbo just happy and acting like kids-- or rather, teenage brats, again. And he found he didn’t dislike having Ranboo in the mix, either. The hybrid blended perfectly, no pun intended, with the two best friends, and they all had a level of respect and established banter that Wilbur was almost (but not quite) envious of. He did actually hate being the voice of reason, but it was a little bit worth it just to see Ranboo of all people, the neutral nervous wreck, let loose and cause chaos. He did himself like a little chaos, after all, so it was nice to know it wasn’t out of the question for his newfound sibling. Startled at his own thoughts, he quickly checked himself with a modicum of disgust. Wow. If he wasn’t careful, he might actually wind up feeling attached. Good thing he’d never let that happen. He glanced at Phil, who was smiling smugly at him as if he knew something Wilbur didn’t. Right. One more time for reassurance, then. He’d never let that happen.

#dreamsmp fanfic #wilbur soot #ranboo #they write #it is also on ao3 but i cannot link or it won't show up in tags apologies!#bro the tumblr version takes so long to edit because i have to manually fix all the italics jfkldsnvlsdhglshglskdhg #SORRY FOR THE WAIT it is here now

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